2007 great year for respiratory therapy blogs

The RT cave has been around for three months now, and it seems to me to be a pretty good success, especially considering when I started doing this I thought I'd be writing to myself. I'm impressed at how big the medblog community is.

I would like to thank all of you who have responded to one or more of my posts by writing a comment, sending an email, or simply using up some of your valuable time here at the RT Cave. You guys provide me the incentive to keep writing.

To end the year, I would like to pay tribute to all respiratory related medblogs I have discovered to date. I see that 2007 was a great year for the RT world as most of these sites were started just this year. We are the beginning of a revolution.\

The following is in no particular order.

1. Respiratory Therapy 101: I was doing research on protocols when I came upon this website. I thought the Anonymous RT did an excellent job of describing what we do "at the head of the bed." He works at a larger, busier hospital than mine, and it's great to read about what I'm missing by working at a small town hospital -- and what I'm not missing.

2. Respiratory Therapy Driven: Djanvk is in the same boat as me, as he has been doing this for 10+ years and works at a small town hospital. It is a challenge to keep finding things to write about when business is slow, but this guy does a wonderful job of it. He provides an excellent feel for what it's like to be an RT, and he also has a great sense of humor, as do most of us RTs.

3. Snotjockeys: A perfect name for a respiratory therapy blog, and an excellent place to get insightful information about respiratory therapy. Julia has written some excellent posts about the challenges facing RTs, and does the medblog world a great service by her medblog reviews.

4. G's spot. I wish every RT was as pleasant as this blogger, because she's written on more than one occasion how much she loves her job. She works nights as I do, and has to struggle with getting adequate sleep, and I can relate to her that way. And yet she doesn't let the lack of sleep effect her job. She gives an excellent feel of the RT job.

5. respiratory therapy student blog: How cool it would have been to have have had the ability to blog when I was in school. We all remember the struggles of working as an RT, doing clinicals, studying late into the night, fitting in some social gatherings, attending classes, and taking tests. And when vacation time came along, we really appreciated them. Great blog from a student perspective. Soon he'll have to change the name of his blog to RTblog.com.

6. Sleepy RT medic: How cool it would have been to have had experience as a medic before going to RT school. That's what this blogger is doing. This blogger also provides an excellent reminder of how difficult it is to hold a job and go to school. Like #5, he provides some good information on things we RTs take for granted once we finish school.

7. Sometimes I breathe: The same can be said of this blogger as the last two, as he provides a good reminder of how hard it is to become an RT. Since these student RT bloggers are still in school, they have access to all the latest information and can provide us older RTs with links to some cool RT related websites.

8. Breathing through school: Another RT student blogger who has recently decided to brave the blogger world. I think this was a good idea for her, because she's provided some neat incite. In one post she describes RT school as "weeding out the garden." While many aspiring RTs will enter, only a few will leave.

9. RTT with ADD: Despite her ADD, this blogger provides more cool incite into being an RT. She once described reading blogs, "as though I'm intruding...intruding into their personal thoughts, feelings, emotions and most of all, their personal space..." That's very true. And one reason why we bloggers should make money for what we do, say $30 a word.

10. Pulmonary Roundtable: Great place to read about, learn from and discuss RT case studies.

11. Respiratory Therapy Blog: He hasn't written in a while, but when you read what he has written you can't help but to learn something. Here's hoping he writes more soon.

12. The Respiratory Terrorist: Ditto. Here's hoping he writes again soon.

13. Any more RT bloggers out there? If I left your RT blog off this list it's only because I haven't found it yet. Leave me a comment and I'll plug your blog in the new year.

Here's a toast (raises glass) to a happy new year.