Quote:
Originally Posted by BigRedChief
Got some new figures from my RT buddies
- We have 7600 licensed Respiratory Therapists in the USA
- Lets say they work 8 hours a day with no days off for 2 months. 3 shifts.
- Around 2533 RT's available in the USA to run vents in our hospitals on any given shift.
- We usually run 3-4 ventilators max at a time. Lets double that to 6-8 vents at a time in this time of crisis.
- In the USA, our capacity to have trained and licsensed staff to run ventilators at the same time is 20,264
- We have more than 20,264 of us needing vents at the same time.... decisions on safety will need to be made by someone.
And in my experience, you don't want about 20% of those RT's running your families ventilator. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Monticore
Isn't there also the issue of having enough people to use them. not sure how long it would take to train nurses/doctors to be able to run them.
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I just posted the numbers one page back.
Doctors cant run them, they are too busy. There is a reason Respiratory Therapists run them and not nurses. You need a lot of specific training to not damage peoples lungs while on the vent.