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AAS VS BS

By Delia Lechtenberg RRT posted 11-04-2011 12:52

  

I have very mixed feelings about the AAS vs BS.  I currently run an AAS program that has been in this community for over 30 years.  I would not want anything to happen to this program, considering that I have ran it for 19 of the 30 years and have taken complete ownership of it!  This program has graduated 100's of therapists which range from CRT to RRT.  

We have seen a shift state-wide with the hospitals now changing their requirements for employment.  Locally, the hospitals hire new CRT grads with the caveat that within 3 years they are to have successfully written the RRT to keep their jobs.  This was a long time coming, after years of preaching to the employers that we needed to have RRT's.  

On the other hand, locally, we are also seeing many RRT's now pursing their BS degree.  Most are pursuing a BS in Health Management or other unrelated fields. So with that being said what does that actually mean?  I honestly believe this means that RTs want to pursue  higher levels in the profession and I believe that we as Respiratory Therapist need to evolve.   I agree with the comment made by Mr. Watson that we need to make a clear distinction between a CRT and an RRT with  an AAS degree as entry level CRT level, and BS as RRT.  

The Colorado Community College system has opened up the discussion about the community college's offering Bachelor of Applied Science Degrees in some disciplines.   The Disciplines that came up in discussion were Dental Hygiene, Nursing, and Respiratory Therapy.   The President of my college contacted me and wanted my input about offering a BAS degree.   I had a very open and honest discussion with her about my feelings, and gave her documentation from the AARC and information in regards to offering the BAS degree.  We forwarded this information to the system office and are awaiting their response.  If the system office agrees to at least toying with the idea, the next step would be an assessment of what the community feels about this.   I, for one, would be very interested in hearing their input on this, and would honestly love the opportunity to pursue this concept.   

With this all being said, I believe we need to evolve in to higher level professionals, but at the same time, I sure would not want to see anything happen to this program......what a quandary this presents!

Delia Ann Lechtenberg, MA, RRT
Dept. Chair, Respiratory Care and Polysomongraphy Technology
Pueblo Community College
Pueblo, CO  

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Stephen Travers
05-29-2013 19:15

You can have multiple degrees but when it comes to talking with and educating patients on how to use their Medications in the home you need to talk on the patients level. If you talk in medical terminology they will think damn he/she is smart but not understand any thing that you said. A lot of patients are functional illiterates and if you don't want them to be readmitted to your hospital within two weeks you better learn the language they understand. I knew a lady who worked with me when I was in the Army who had two Masters (communications and psych) but soldiers couldn't understand what she was saying most of the time as she loved medical terminology. That was when I was a Drug and Alcohol Counselor at Ft Sam in San Antonio, TX. My education for that was a ten week school, 8 hours a day 5 days a week, with a test at the end of each week. If you failed a test, you were returned to the Combat Medic field (for those who haven't served, the Combat Medic course was a prereq of my next course) then sent to the field with the infantry (females tended to go to the hospitals back in those days). I learned to talk in many different forms of the English language during my military career East coast is different then the West coast. People in NYC talk differently then people from LA (Los Angeles) or Detroit for that matter. No where in the many different schools I have attended has anyone pointed this out. Because there isn't a degree program for that! Being able to listen to your patients and change the terminology you use to fit their education level, without embarrassing (or insulting) them is a skill few Rts seem to have. Many many times I have had patients comment that other RTs don't talk to them or that they talk "over" them. Yes I am a CRT and No I am not going back to college just to get a RRT but I can do a painless ABG, can you!

Robert McGee
11-18-2011 13:28

Can anyone defend the notion that a BS or a BAS degree actually improves care at the bedside? Or are we destined to go the route of nursing and PT by requiring higher degrees packed with courses that do nothing to improve patient care. Look at most MSN degrees. What courses are there to improve or teach bedside skills? No, there are plenty of courses to teach informatics, some management but mostly the courses are about social science, computers or ways of working within the framework of ocialized medicine. The profession i have been in for almost 40 years deserves a better fate.

Joseph Elliott
11-10-2011 16:00

I would then advocate for a BS being minimum but since the CoARC hates that idea then I would be okay with compromising to a minimum BAS with BS still being planned as the minimum in the future.

Carl Hinkson
11-09-2011 17:12

This the best answer I could find on the internet to your question. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Bachelor_of_science_vs_bachelor_of_applied_science. Community Colleges can only award applied degrees. In theory a BS would be better than a BAS because by the time RT students their respiratory classes, they would have a better understanding of basic sciences and the RT classes could be taught at a higher level.

Joseph Elliott
11-06-2011 21:05

What is the difference in a Bachelor of Applied Science and a Bachelor of Science degree?