Becker Ellen A, Nguyen Xuan T
Department of Cardiopulmonary Sciences, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois
Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital, St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
Respir Care. 2014 Dec;59(12):1817-24. doi: 10.4187/respcare.03106. Epub 2014 Jul 1.
Transitioning from an associate degree to a baccalaureate degree for respiratory therapists has been suggested as a new entry-level educational standard. One potential risk for this change is that it may limit the diversity of potential applicants for entry-level education. A diverse workforce is important to achieve the goal of reducing healthcare disparities. This study evaluated characteristics of therapists who completed associate and baccalaureate degree entry-level education.
A secondary analysis of data collected from the 2009 AARC Respiratory Therapist Human Resource Survey explored relationships between the choice of entry-level associate or baccalaureate education and variables of gender, race, salary, career advancement, and job satisfaction.
There were no differences between therapists with entry-level associate and baccalaureate degrees in gender, race, number of additional healthcare credentials, numbers of life support credentials, wages, delivering respiratory care by protocol, and job satisfaction. There were significantly higher percentages of advanced academic degrees, desire to pursue a higher academic degree, registered respiratory therapist credentials, total National Board for Respiratory Care credentials, and leadership roles for therapists with baccalaureate entry-level degrees.
Current entry-level associate and baccalaureate degree graduates have similar gender and race proportions. This finding challenges concerns that an entry-level baccalaureate degree would decrease the diversity of the respiratory therapist workforce.
有人建议将呼吸治疗师从副学士学位过渡到学士学位作为新的入门级教育标准。这一变化的一个潜在风险是，它可能会限制入门级教育潜在申请人的多样性。多元化的劳动力对于实现减少医疗保健差距的目标很重要。本研究评估了完成副学士学位和学士学位入门级教育的治疗师的特征。
对2009年美国呼吸治疗师协会（AARC）呼吸治疗师人力资源调查收集的数据进行二次分析，探讨入门级副学士学位或学士学位教育的选择与性别、种族、薪资、职业发展和工作满意度等变量之间的关系。
拥有入门级副学士学位和学士学位的治疗师在性别、种族、额外医疗保健证书数量、生命支持证书数量、工资、按方案提供呼吸护理以及工作满意度方面没有差异。拥有学士学位入门级学位的治疗师在高级学术学位、追求更高学术学位的愿望、注册呼吸治疗师证书、国家呼吸护理委员会总证书以及领导角色方面的比例明显更高。
目前入门级副学士学位和学士学位的毕业生在性别和种族比例上相似。这一发现挑战了关于入门级学士学位会减少呼吸治疗师劳动力多样性的担忧。
