With Great Clinical Practice Guidelines Comes Great (or at Least Better) Resource Allocation

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the health-care system in the United States since March of 2020. Three years after the first United States patient was identified, the respiratory care profession has encountered substantial challenges, along with every other health-care discipline. There are two main contributing factors that have disrupted the respiratory therapists' (RT) workforce. The first has been the stress from caring for patients who are acutely ill through successive waves of the pandemic. Second, RTs have experienced high rates of burnout from working without adequate staffing.¹ Miller et al² reported that 79% of RTs reported having some level of burnout. Inadequate staffing, inability to complete work assignments, lack of leadership, and lack of respect were all contributing factors to an increased risk of burnout among RTs. The sequelae of burnout are well documented: adverse patient outcomes, reduced staff well-being, lapses in professionalism, and harm to the health-care system.^3,4 Research done in nursing has demonstrated that burnout can increase mortality and prolong length of stay. Although there is no research on outcomes specific to RTs, negative outcomes to patients from RT burnout likely exist.

In addition to the high burnout, the respiratory care profession is currently enduring the worst workforce shortage in memory. Between 2019 and 2020, RT job vacancies increased by 31%.⁵ Throughout the pandemic, the large numbers of patients who were critically ill created a greater demand for RTs. As demand grew, hospitals sought to combat staffing gaps with increasing dependence …

Correspondence: Carl Hinkson MSc RRT RRT-ACCS RRT-NPS FAARC, President, American Association for Respiratory Care. E-mail: carl.hinkson{at}providence.org