A medical specialty responsible for treating, examining and rehabilitating patients with acute or chronic respiratory diseases. The huge development in medicine over the past decades has led to shedding more light on the importance of the role of respiratory care specialists in examination, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of respiratory diseases, under direct or indirect supervision of doctors. The tasks of respiratory care specialists require the practitioners to play a pioneering role in performing threir responsibilities in order to provide the best services to patients.

The idea of respiratory care began in the sixties of the last century under the name of inhalation therapy, and with the invention of ventilators technology, the spread of medical research and studies, in addition to the increase in treatment methods and options of chest diseases, the idea of designating a separated specialty started gradually to develop under several names until it became a separate specialty and practice. Nowadays, it is considered of the modern and globally rare

specialties by which the quality of care in hospitals is measured, especially in intensive care departments whereby the number and competence of respiratory care practitioners are considered main indicators. 

Tasks of respiratory care practitioners

• Inspection and Assesment of patients who suffer from respiratory diseases by conducting diagnostic tests which include testing of lung function, sleep study, lung stress tests, blood gas measurement a
• Working with the the medical team to examine patients with acute respiratory problems in which a respiratory therapist draws blood from the artery to measure the level of blood gases, and protect th
• Managing ventilators in intensive care departments to help doctors build a treatment strategy by making needed adjustments so that to ensure the stability of blood gases and thereby protect the lung
• Contribution in educating patients and community members in different aspects related to with preventing and encountering respiratory diseases in addition to explaining appropriate treatment ways
• Training patients with bronchial asthma, pneumonia, and chronic bronchitis on how to use bronchodilator medications and measure their response
• Doing chest exercises for patients who suffer from accumulation and sputum pool in the respiratory stream to have normal breathing back after surgery
• Participation as members of the rapid intervention group for in-hospital respiratory failures and key members of Cardiopulmonary resuscitation team