Course Descriptions (Degree Advancement Program)

Required Courses

RESPCARE 355 Professional Communication in Health Care
Focus on professional written and oral communication as practiced within the scope of respiratory care. Develop audience specific written documents, including writing that is appropriate for a professional journal or conference and prepare, deliver and evaluate oral presentations.

RESPCARE 440 Senior Theory: Advanced Concepts
Techniques and methods used to analyze and evaluate the health status of critically ill patients with emphasis on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

RESPCARE 441 Teaching Techniques for Health Care Professionals
An interactive, online course designed to provide health care professionals with the skills needed to provide effective peer and client education.

RESPCARE 444 Leadership and Management for Health Care Professionals
Extensive examination of current practices/trends of techniques used in the leadership of the health care environment. Emphasis will be placed upon specific skill sets used by the managers of today’s workforce.

RESPCARE 445 Patient Advocacy and Ethical Considerations
An advanced exploration of the responsibilities required of health care practitioners. Designed to help students develop a clearer understanding of patient’s rights and in turn become advocates for those rights.

RESPCARE 432 Critical Review of Health Care Research
Locating, selecting and critically reviewing medical and lay literature relevant to the practice of health care. Constructing and researching clinical questions. Skills for keeping abreast of new medical information, deciding which of this information is valid and applicable to patient care, and using this information to improve patient care.

RESPCARE 480 Capstone
Students, working individually and in teams, will find and use studies and articles from a variety of healthcare disciplines to develop an evidence-based literature review and a culminating group project that addresses a current respiratory care process/problem from the perspective of several different members of the healthcare team.

Elective Courses (Choose 3 of the Following 4 Courses)

RESPCARE 431 Quality Improvement in Health Care
Introduction and evaluation of current approaches to assessing risk and improving health care quality through the practice of continuous quality improvement. Focuses on conceptual understanding and experiential learning.

RESPCARE 442 Sleep Medicine
Overview of sleep medicine, anatomy and physiology of sleep and breathing. Introduction to sleep disorders and polysomnograpy including monitoring techniques and instrumentation.

RESPCARE 443 Current Topics in Respiratory Disease
Discussion of current issues related to respiratory disease, including pathophysiology, management and outcomes.

RESPCARE 446 Introduction to Disease Management
An Introduction to the purpose and application of disease management in patients with chronic illness. Emphasis will be on management of individuals with COPD, sleep disordered breathing, asthma and congestive heart failure. Discharge planning, patient education, disease management strategies and methods to reduce hospital readmissions will be discussed.