Usually there is additional education and an examination required. Then there are opportunities to specialize by age cohort. There are respiratory therapists who take a specialty examination in neonatal perinatal respiratory care. They take care of newborns, preemies-all those tiny children who have deficiencies in their hearts and lungs when they are born. Some respiratory therapists who only work in children's hospitals or in those units within the children's units of hospitals.
Children are a special challenge and require additional education.
Others work in pulmonary and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation facilities, which might be in the hospital or in a storefront clinic. Usually these use a multidisciplinary approach, with physical therapists, physicians and nurse, to rehabilitate patients who have chronic lung diseases. With aging population that we have in America and the projected increase in senior citizens for the next 20 to 30 years, there's probably going to be much more work for respiratory therapists working with senior citizens. Finally, there are respiratory therapists who work in the community with organizations, such as the American Lung Association. The lung association here employs two or three respiratory therapists.