Explore Career Opportunities with a Respiratory Therapy Degree

Millions of people have lung problems throughout the U.S., creating a demand for trained respiratory therapists who can help these individuals treat or manage their conditions and improve their quality of life. With that said, if you’re currently attending college to earn a respiratory therapy degree, you will be glad to know that there are numerous career paths available.

What to Know About Being a Respiratory Therapist

A respiratory therapist helps with diagnosing, treating, and managing conditions related to the respiratory system. Working alongside pulmonologists and other doctors, these individuals evaluate the lung function of patients, administer treatments, and recommend treatment adjustments. These treatments also assist patients with managing their chronic respiratory problems. ​

These therapists help patients who are in acute respiratory failure, have asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or cystic fibrosis, or who are suffering from pneumonia, bronchitis, or other lung infections.

The median salary, as of 2024, for a respiratory therapist is $80,450.

Furthering Your Education to Become a Pulmonologist

While respiratory therapists make a lucrative salary, if you’re looking to make more or would like to have a larger impact on patients, you could extend your education and become a pulmonologist by earning a doctorate. The average salary for this career is over $300,000 per year, and this is the type of physician who had a major role in the COVID-19 pandemic, as patients were suffering from severe complications from the infection.

Becoming a pulmonologist requires you to complete a bachelor’s degree first, which would be in respiratory therapy. You’ll then need to complete your Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and attend a four-year medical school.

Once you earn either your MD or DO, you’ll need to complete an internal medicine residency, which usually takes three years. After, you’ll need to complete a pulmonology fellowship — a program that takes two to three years to educate a person about diagnosing and treating complicated respiratory illnesses and diseases.

A Critical Care/ICU Specialist

A critical care/ICU specialist is a respiratory therapist who specifically works in an intensive care unit (ICU) patients. As a critical care specialist, you’d provide advanced respiratory care to patients with life-threatening conditions that affect their lungs, heart, or other vital organs.

In this role, you may be monitoring patients on mechanical ventilators or those who have complex respiratory disease. You’ll need to resuscitate patients and provide education as needed.

You can find jobs for this position in trauma centers, emergency departments, and hospital ICU units.

You’ll need your registered respiratory therapist license for the position as a critical care specialist. Besides having either an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree, most employers will prefer you also have advanced certifications, such as your adult critical care specialist (ACCS) or advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) certification.

The average salary for a person in this position is $36 per hour, which is equivalent to $75,000 per year.

A Sleep Disorder Technician

Having a respiratory therapy degree can prepare you for a career as a sleep technician. In this position, you’ll monitor patients’ vitals as they sleep and may need to intervene with CPAP or BiPAP therapy, two treatments that keep their airways open. As a breathing specialist, you’ll understand how the treatment works and how to adjust it accordingly for a patient. You’ll need to educate patients on how to use their devices and work with sleep medicine specialists and other physicians who diagnose sleep disorders.

Ideally, a sleep clinic or hospital would like you to have a registered respiratory therapist license. Just to give you a heads up, a sleep disorder technician usually makes around $65,000 per year.

A Case Manager/Coordinator

Instead of directly providing patient care, you could pursue a role as a case manager with a respiratory therapy degree.

Your job as a case manager would be to oversee patient care. You’ll be responsible for advocating for your patients, coordinating services with medical professionals, helping patients transition home, and providing patient education.

Your role would specifically focus on patients with acute and chronic respiratory disorders. Because you’re in a management role, you’ll make over $100,000 per year, on average.

A University/College Instructor

If you become a university or college instructor, you’d be helping the future generations prepare for a role in respiratory therapy. You’d educate them on lung anatomy, critical care management, mechanical ventilation, and patient assessment techniques.

Besides having your standard bachelor’s degree in respiratory therapy, most employers will ask that you have a master’s. Or, you could also take the route of having extra credentials, such as your adult critical care specialist certification.

Some places that may hire you include:

• Community colleges
• Technical schools
• Universities

You’ll tend to have a higher salary in universities. But, overall, the average salary for someone working as a university or college instructor is $85,000 per year.

With a respiratory therapy degree, your options aren’t limited. You could become an instructor or help patients suffering from sleep disorders. You could even become a case manager and be the one who oversees all patient care for those with respiratory conditions. In case cases, you may be able to make over $100,000 per year, though you may have to undergo some additional training. You could, on the other hand, look into occupational therapy, which offers its share of opportunities.

Career Reload Team

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