The Recruiting Benefits of a Respiratory Therapy Apprentice Program

Background: Recruiting is challenging for the healthcare field. However, it has been extremely difficult to recruit and retain respiratory therapists since the COVID-19 pandemic. Many healthcare organizations have been forced to use travel agencies to help staff their respiratory therapy teams. Travel respiratory therapists come at a very high cost and have added to the financial strain that many healthcare organizations are facing. Methods: In order to effectively recruit respiratory therapists, it is important to get RT students engaged in your organization very early in their journey into the career field. By creating a respiratory therapy apprentice program, the organization can offer the RT students many opportunities to shadow various facilities and job roles in which respiratory therapists can perform. The Norton Healthcare Respiratory Therapy Apprentice Program is a paid shadow experience that consists of a total of 172 hours. There are ten acute care hospital experiences and seven specialty experiences. The entire program is observation only and allows the apprentice to gain knowledge, experience, and organizational culture without the stress of having to perform tasks. Results: The program started with two apprentices who began their observation rotations in March 2020. Since then, the program has grown significantly. As of May 2023, there have been forty-five Norton Healthcare Respiratory Therapy Apprentices. Of the forty-five apprentices, twelve did not complete the program for various reasons, six are currently working to complete their observation rotations, and twenty-seven have progressed in the program to obtain student respiratory therapist positions within our organization. Twelve of those apprentices have since become RRTs and have filled full time and part time positions within our organization. There are only three apprentices who completed the program but did not remain with the organization. Conclusions: The respiratory therapy apprentice program has proven to be an effective recruiting tool for Norton Healthcare. The program started out small but has grown significantly over the last three years. From the program, 27 student positions have been filled, 12 of those have now obtained their RRT credential and have moved into full time and part time positions within our organization. This has reduced the number of travel respiratory therapists needed and reduced some of the strain we have experienced as respiratory care departments and as an organization.