YTI Career Institute (YTI) offers a respiratory therapy program that can be completed in as few as 20 months. The program is available through the Altoona, PA campus in a hybrid format, meaning instruction and labs are online and clinical rotations are in-person at approved clinical sites. The program has also earned Initial Accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care and is also recognized by the National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC). Graduates earn an Associate in Specialized Technology degree through the 120-credit program.

In Terms 1-3, lecture material is accessed online using the LMS (learning management system) in an asynchronous format. Students should expect to spend an average of five hours per day, five days per week, engaging in online instruction, and an additional three to five hours per day in reading, homework, activities, online discussion boards and simulations. In Terms 4 through 8, all didactic instruction is assessed online an average of fifteen hours per week, Monday through Sunday, with an additional 10-15 hours per week of homework and other online assignments. Clinical rotations and supervised lab instruction will be completed at approved clinical sites. Clinical assignments for Term 4 will be a minimum of six hours per week between Monday and Friday, and for Terms 5-8, a minimum of 12 hours per week between Monday and Friday.

The goal of the Respiratory Therapy program is to prepare graduates with demonstrated competence in the cognitive (knowledge), psychomotor (skills), and affective (behavior) learning domains of respiratory care practice as performed by registered respiratory therapists (RRTs). Within the program, you’ll be introduced to the skills that you’ll need to succeed in the respiratory therapy career field. Some of these include:

• Blood gas analysis
• Patient assessment
• Newborn and pediatric care
• Oxygen therapy delivery
• Smoking cessation
• Airway management
• Asthma management

Read more about this program and what else you can learn by visiting the program description page. To watch a podcast by the program director, Carl Kenyon, and the YTI President and CEO, Jim Bologa, go to the YTI Career Institute YouTube page or view the video here. If you’re ready to get started, sign up through the online application portal.