Respiratory Therapist III

Dominican Hospital (a member of Dignity Health) is a 222-bed facility that offers a wide range of services to residents of California’s Central Coast. With 24/7 emergency care, comprehensive care in cardiac, orthopedics, oncology, women’s and children’s services, we continue to lead the region in medical innovation and excellence in healthcare.

Comprehensive Care
Dominican offers emergency services and is a Certified Stroke Center and Chest Pain Center. Dominican’s services include the only comprehensive Cancer Center in Santa Cruz County, a Total Joint Replacement program, and advanced neurological and endoscopic services. Dominican regularly receives ‘A’ grades for hospital safety from Leapfrog Group, and has received national recognition for superior patient safety, cardiac care, and stroke treatment from Healthgrades, a leading provider of comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.
As Santa Cruz County’s heart attack (STEMI) receiving center, Dominican Hospital provides cutting edge cardiac care. The hospital’s heart attack treatment times consistently beat the national average, and the hospital offers two cardiac catheterization labs available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Groundbreaking cardiac procedures at Dominican include the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) procedure, which allows for heart valve replacement without opening a patient’s chest.
Dominican Hospital has forged significant partnerships with area hospitals to bring exceptional care to Santa Cruz County. The hospital offers a level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) through a partnership with Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Neurosurgery at Dominican is also offered through a partnership with Stanford Health Care.

One Community. One Mission. One California 

As a Respiratory Therapist, you will join an established team of RTs who share your passion for delivering highly specialized cardiopulmonary care to patients experiencing breathing issues. You'll be instrumental in providing a range of treatments from breathing techniques and nebulizer treatments to ventilator management, oxygen therapies, and external ventilation support.

Every day you will apply your keen assessment skills and critical thinking to manage diverse patient needs, develop and execute effective care plans, and ensure calm, focused intervention in both routine and emergent situations.

To be successful in this role, you will demonstrate a strong sense of urgency, unwavering calm under pressure, and the ability to anticipate outcomes. Your dedication to patient well-being and exceptional problem-solving abilities will drive success in this vital role.

• Utilizes the AIDET principles to communicate with patients, family, and colleagues
• Therapist demonstrates good customer service and contributes positively to the patient experience.
• Therapist works constructively to resolve customer satisfaction issues.
• Therapist maintains positive and constructive communication with patients, families and collages.
• Therapist adheres to current communication practices (patient white boards, etc.)
• Shift Relief Charge Therapist
• Therapist demonstrates effective and organized workload organization.
• Therapist works constructively with management in the determination of staffing levels based on unit census and acuity.
• Therapist demonstrates effective hand-off communication (SBAR) regarding patient care, staffing, or other administrative or systems issues at the end of his/her shift.
• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit/ Pediatric Emergency
• Therapist demonstrates proficiency in the following procedures, protocols and equipment:
  • Neonatal mechanical ventilation (invasive and noninvasive applications)
  • High flow oxygen therapy
  • Neonatal/ Pediatric blood gas and capillary blood gas procedures
  • Neonatal intubation
  • Administration of surfactant for respiratory distress syndrome
  • Management of pediatric respiratory distress/ failure
• Adult Critical Care/ Emergency
• Therapist functions effectively as a member of the critical care team (participates in daily rounds and communicates effectively among the care team)
• Therapist demonstrates proficiency in the following procedures, protocols and equipment:
  • Adult invasive positive-pressure ventilation
  • Adult noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation
  • Adult high flow oxygen therapy
  • Heliox therapy
  • Continuous aerosolized medication administration
• General Patient Care
• Therapist functions as an effective member of the patient care team and communicates effectively with physicians, nurses, case managers, social workers and other therapy providers regarding important issues affecting patient care or patient care transition.
• Therapist demonstrates proficiency in the following procedures, protocols and equipment:
  • RT evaluation and treatment protocol
  • Bronchodilator protocol
  • Secretion mobilization protocol
  • Oxygen protocol/ oxygen administration
  • Simple pulmonary function screening/ assessment
  • (FEV1, PEFR, etc.)
  • Treatment/ screening for obstructive sleep apnea (CPAP/ BiPAP)
  • Arterial blood gas sampling and analysis
  • Administration of aerosolized medication
  • Patient education

Required

• Associates Of Science degree and Two years experience required with demonstrated proficiency in the operation of complex respiratory therapy equipment, use of therapeutic agents, and competency in managing critical care patients (adult, pediatric, and neonatal) requiring ventilator support.
• Respiratory Care Practitioner: CA License
• Basic Life Support - CPR
• Advanced Cardiac Life Support
• Pediatric Advanced Life Support
• Neonatal Resuscitation Program
• Registered Respiratory Therapist

Preferred

• Experience with respiratory care protocols