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Contents
Respiratory Therapist Resume: The Essentials
Why This Respiratory Therapist Resume Works
How to Write a Respiratory Therapist Resume
What to Include in a Respiratory Therapist Resume
Respiratory Therapist Resume Summary Examples
Respiratory Therapist Work Experience Examples
Top Respiratory Therapist Skills
Certifications for a Respiratory Therapist
Respiratory Therapist Salary
Common Respiratory Therapist Resume Mistakes
Respiratory Therapist Resume FAQs
Summary
Respiratory therapist with eight years caring for patients with breathing problems in critical care and general wards at a hospital in Toronto. Helps patients breathe when they cannot do it on their own — managing ventilators, delivering oxygen and airway therapy, responding to respiratory emergencies, and guiding patients with chronic lung disease toward better breathing. Recognised for skilled ventilator management and for calm, decisive work in respiratory emergencies. Assesses respiratory status, manages ventilation and oxygen therapy, responds to codes and emergencies, educates patients, and works within the critical-care team. Skilled, calm and compassionate. Looking for a respiratory-therapist role on a unit where airway and breathing care genuinely save lives.
Work Experience
Respiratory Therapist
Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Canada
Jan 2018 – Present
- Help patients breathe when they cannot do it on their own, in critical care and on the wards alike.
- Recognised for skilled ventilator management and for calm, decisive work in respiratory emergencies.
- Assess respiratory status and manage mechanical ventilation, tuning support precisely to each patient's needs.
- Deliver oxygen and airway therapy, treating breathing problems and supporting recovery across the hospital.
- Respond to codes and respiratory emergencies, securing airways and stabilising breathing under real pressure.
- Educate patients with chronic lung disease and work within the critical-care team to keep care joined up.
Respiratory Therapist (General Wards)
Ontario Community Hospital, Toronto, Canada
Jul 2016 – Dec 2017
- Provided respiratory care on general wards as a newer therapist, building core clinical respiratory skills.
- Managed oxygen, nebulisers and assessments daily, steadily developing the judgement critical care demands.
- Learned ventilation, airway care and emergency response on the job across more than a year.
- Gained the experience that led into a critical-care respiratory-therapist role of my own.
Education
Advanced Diploma in Respiratory Therapy, Respiratory Therapy
The Michener Institute, Toronto
Sep 2013 – Jun 2016
- Advanced diploma in respiratory therapy covering cardiopulmonary physiology, ventilation, pharmacology and critical care, with clinical placements. The programme built the clinical foundation respiratory therapy requires. It led directly into practice.
Registered Respiratory Therapist Credential, Respiratory Therapy
College of Respiratory Therapists
Jul 2016 – Dec 2016
- Registration and credentialing as a respiratory therapist following examination to a recognised standard. It authorised independent practice. It supported safe, skilled respiratory care in critical and general settings.
Highlights
Skilled ventilator management
- Recognised for skilled management of patients on ventilators. Getting ventilation right keeps critically ill patients alive and helps them recover faster, so expert ventilator care is among the most life-critical work on the unit.
Calm in emergencies
- Known for calm, decisive work in respiratory emergencies. When a patient stops breathing, clear-headed, fast action decides the outcome, so being trusted to lead in those moments reflects real clinical skill and nerve.
Registration
Registered Respiratory Therapist
College of Respiratory Therapists
Dec 2016 – Present
- Holds registration as a respiratory therapist following examination to a recognised standard, which authorises independent practice and grounds safe, skilled respiratory care in critical and general hospital settings.
Recognition
Trusted in critical care
- Relied on by the critical-care team for expert ventilator and airway management and for steady leadership in emergencies, valued for the calm, skilled, compassionate care he brings to his sickest patients.
Languages
- English (US) — Native or Bilingual Proficiency
- French — Professional Working Proficiency
Technical Skills
- Mechanical Ventilation
- Respiratory Assessment
- Oxygen Therapy
- Airway Management
- Emergency Response
- Critical Care
- Arterial Blood Gases
- Patient Education
- Chronic Lung Disease Care
- Team Working
Personal Skills
- Calm Under Pressure
- Clinical Judgement
- Compassion
- Decisiveness
- Communication
Activities & Interests
- Dating
- Talking
- Watching Tv
- Gambling
- Karate
Respiratory Therapist Resume: The Essentials
Recruiters and clinical managers screen RT resumes fast; these six points decide who survives the first pass:
- Credentials go in the header, not the footer: RRT (or CRT), state licence or provincial registration, and current BLS and ACLS. Missing credentials end the screen.
- Acuity is the currency. Ventilator management in an ICU outranks any amount of general floor therapy, so state your settings and patient mix precisely.
- Quantify clinical scope: daily patient assignment, ventilator census, codes and rapid responses attended per week, ABG volume.
- Name modes and equipment: invasive and non-invasive ventilation, HFNC, BiPAP, ventilator makes you know, capnography. Clinical managers read equipment lists literally.
- Show protocol work. Therapist-driven weaning protocols, SBTs and oxygen titration protocols signal a therapist who practises at the top of the licence.
- Specialty credentials (ACCS, NPS) and precepting are the seniority markers that separate otherwise similar staff-RT resumes.
Why This Respiratory Therapist Resume Works
This sample belongs to an eight-year RT covering critical care and general wards at a Toronto hospital, and its choices track exactly what unit managers screen for.
- The summary leads with the two facts a clinical reader wants first: years in critical care and the core competence, ventilator management. No warm-up sentences before the substance.
- Emergency response is claimed with a reputation, not an adjective: recognised for calm, decisive work in respiratory emergencies. That phrasing invites the interview question the candidate wants to answer.
- The registration section stands alone and names the regulatory college. Separating licensure from education mirrors how credentialing teams verify it, which speeds the screen.
- The experience arc shows deliberate progression: general wards at a community hospital first, then critical care at a major teaching hospital. Unit managers read that as earned acuity, not luck.
- Patient education for chronic lung disease gets a bullet alongside the acute work, which widens the fit to units that run COPD and asthma pathways.
- The skills list is clinical and specific (mechanical ventilation, ABGs, airway management) rather than padded with generic hospital vocabulary, so it doubles as an ATS keyword block.
How to Write a Respiratory Therapist Resume
Write for two readers in sequence: the credentialing screen that checks you are legal to practise, and the unit manager who checks you can carry the assignment.
For a role this high-stakes, a second pair of expert eyes pays for itself. Have a clinical-resume specialist from a professional resume writing service pressure-test how your acuity reads before you apply.
Put credentials where the screen looks first
Header line, directly after your name: RRT, licence or registration with state or province, BLS, ACLS, plus NRP or PALS where relevant. In the US that means your NBRC credential and state licence; in Canada, registration with your provincial college, as this sample shows with the College of Respiratory Therapists.
Lead bullets with ventilator work
State what you actually managed: invasive and non-invasive ventilation, initiation, mode changes, weaning and SBTs, and whether you worked under a therapist-driven protocol. 'Managed 8 to 10 ventilated patients daily across medical and surgical ICUs' beats a paragraph of duties.
Quantify acuity and volume
Numbers a charge therapist would recognise: assignment size, vent census, codes and rapid responses per week, ABGs drawn and interpreted, bed count of your unit. These figures place you on the acuity ladder faster than any job title can.
Show breadth across settings
ICU, ER, wards, NICU or PICU, transport: list each setting with its share of your time. Hospitals staff RTs across the house, so a therapist who can float credibly is worth more, and the resume should price that in.
Add the differentiators that survive shortlisting
Specialty credentials (ACCS, NPS), precepting and orientation sign-offs, protocol or committee work, equipment rollouts. If you sat on a ventilator-liberation committee or co-wrote an oxygen titration protocol, that is a senior line even in a staff role.
What to Include in a Respiratory Therapist Resume
Work through this checklist before formatting anything; missing items here cost interviews regardless of how the page looks:
Licensure and registration with jurisdiction and status, plus NBRC credentials in the US or provincial college registration in Canada. Add licence numbers only when the application asks.
Life-support certifications with currency: BLS and ACLS as standard, NRP for delivery attendance, PALS for paediatric settings.
Unit context per role: bed count, hospital type (teaching, community, long-term acute care) and your typical daily assignment.
Equipment and modes: ventilator platforms, HFNC, BiPAP and CPAP, capnography, ABG analysers. Name what you can run without supervision.
Protocols you practised under or helped write: weaning, SBT, oxygen titration, bronchodilator assessment.
Education work: inhaler technique teaching, COPD and asthma education, ventilator-family communication. The sample's chronic-lung-disease education line earns its place this way.
Clinical rotations with hours for new graduates, listed like jobs with unit, acuity and skills signed off.
Respiratory Therapist Resume Summary Examples
The sample opens with eight years of critical-care range; here are three summaries built the same way for other stages and specialties:
Entry-level resume summary example
Registered respiratory therapist and recent graduate with 1,200 hours of clinical rotations across adult ICU, emergency and general medicine, now six months into a first staff role on a 30-bed medical unit. Manages oxygen titration, high-flow nasal cannula and nebulised therapy for a daily caseload of 12 to 16 patients, draws and interprets ABGs, and sets up and monitors BiPAP under senior review. Credentialed RRT through the NBRC on the first attempt, with current BLS and ACLS. Known on the unit for careful assessments and early escalation, and working toward an adult critical-care rotation with the goal of sitting the ACCS examination within two years.
Mid-level resume summary example
Respiratory therapist with seven years in adult critical care at a 600-bed teaching hospital, carrying a daily assignment of 8 to 10 ventilated patients across medical and surgical ICUs. Manages invasive and non-invasive ventilation from initiation through weaning, runs spontaneous breathing trials under a therapist-driven protocol, and responds to an average of four rapid responses or codes a week as the airway resource. Precepts two new therapists a year and sits on the ventilator-liberation committee, where protocol changes helped cut average ventilator days from 5.1 to 4.2. Holds RRT and ACCS credentials with current ACLS, and is building hours toward an ECMO specialist role.
Senior-level resume summary example
Senior respiratory therapist with fourteen years spanning adult ICU, emergency and neonatal intensive care, currently lead therapist on a 24-bed Level III NICU with the NPS credential. Manages conventional and high-frequency oscillatory ventilation for infants from 24 weeks gestation, attends every high-risk delivery on the rota, and co-wrote the unit's surfactant administration and nitric-oxide weaning protocols. Chairs the hospital's respiratory practice council, led the rollout of waveform capnography across three ICUs, and precepts NPS candidates with a 100 percent first-attempt pass record over five years. Seeking a clinical-lead post pairing protocol work and bedside teaching with a full assignment.
Respiratory Therapist Work Experience Examples
The sample covers a critical-care generalist; these sets show how the same bullet discipline reads across three RT contexts, always pairing the intervention with its scale or outcome:
Adult ICU respiratory therapist
- Managed invasive and non-invasive ventilation for a daily assignment of 8 to 10 ICU patients, adjusting modes, PEEP and FiO2 against serial ABGs and waveforms, and documenting every change in Epic within the hour.
- Ran morning spontaneous breathing trials under a therapist-driven weaning protocol, contributing to a unit-wide reduction in average ventilator days from 5.1 to 4.2 across eighteen months of protocol audits.
- Set up and titrated high-flow nasal cannula and BiPAP for post-extubation and COPD patients, catching early failure on serial assessments and escalating before emergency reintubation became necessary.
- Precepted two graduate therapists a year through a twelve-week ICU orientation, signing off ventilator management, ABG interpretation and code response before either worked an independent night shift.
Emergency department and rapid response
- Carried the airway pager for a 500-bed hospital, responding to roughly four codes and rapid responses a week to secure airways, bag-ventilate and manage the ventilator through and after each resuscitation.
- Assessed undifferentiated breathless patients in a 90-bed emergency department, starting oxygen, nebulised bronchodilators or non-invasive ventilation within minutes of triage and handing over with a full ABG picture.
- Managed ventilators for ICU patients boarding overnight in the emergency department, keeping lung-protective settings and sedation-linked assessments on schedule until beds opened upstairs.
- Completed around 400 ABG punctures a year with a first-pass success rate above 90 percent, and flagged every critical result to the treating physician within ten minutes of the analyser run.
New graduate, general wards
- Provided respiratory assessment and oxygen titration for a daily list of 12 to 16 ward patients, weaning stable patients off supplemental oxygen a day earlier on average under the unit's titration protocol.
- Delivered nebulised bronchodilator and mucolytic therapy across four medical wards, teaching inhaler technique at the bedside until each patient could demonstrate correct use without prompting.
- Monitored tracheostomy patients across the wards, performing routine tube care and suctioning, and escalated two early obstructions to the ICU team before either became an airway emergency.
- Completed 500 supervised clinical hours in the first year, earning sign-off on ward ventilator checks, ABG sampling and night cover twelve weeks ahead of the standard orientation timeline.
Top Respiratory Therapist Skills
Clinical managers read this section as a capability inventory, so list what you can perform independently, in the field's own terms:
Hard skills
- Mechanical Ventilation (Invasive & Non-Invasive)
- Ventilator Weaning & SBT Protocols
- Airway Management & Intubation Assistance
- ABG Sampling & Interpretation
- High-Flow Nasal Cannula (HFNC)
- BiPAP & CPAP Therapy
- Oxygen Titration Protocols
- Aerosol & Bronchodilator Therapy
- Code Blue & Rapid Response
- Capnography & Waveform Analysis
- Tracheostomy Care & Suctioning
- Bronchoscopy Assistance
- Pulmonary Function Testing
- Chest Physiotherapy & Airway Clearance
- COPD & Asthma Patient Education
- Ventilator Transport (Intra-Hospital)
- EMR Documentation (Epic, Cerner)
Soft skills:
- Calm under deteriorating vitals
- Decisive escalation judgement
- Clear closed-loop communication
- Compassion with frightened patients and families
- Stamina across 12-hour shifts
- Teaching at the bedside
Certifications for a Respiratory Therapist
Respiratory therapy is a licensed profession, so distinguish carefully between required licensure and the optional credentials that add rank:
-
RRT
— NBRC The US standard of excellence credential, earned through the TMC and Clinical Simulation examinations. Most hospital ICU roles now require RRT rather than CRT; state licensure sits on top of it.
-
ACCS
— NBRC Optional specialty credential for RRTs working adult ICUs. A genuine differentiator when competing for critical-care and ECMO-adjacent posts.
-
NPS
— NBRC Optional specialty credential for NICU and PICU practice; effectively expected for lead therapist roles in Level III neonatal units.
-
ACLS
— American Heart Association Required by most acute-care employers alongside BLS; add NRP for delivery-room coverage and PALS for paediatric settings. List expiry dates, since recruiters check currency.
-
Provincial Registration (Canada)
— College of Respiratory Therapists of Ontario or provincial equivalent In Canada, practice requires registration with the provincial regulatory college, as this sample's Toronto therapist shows; the national RRT credential is granted via the CBRC examination.
Extra tips
After your name, list the highest degree first, then licensure, then NBRC credentials: 'BSRT, RRT, ACCS' reads as senior; a jumbled order reads as unfamiliar with the field's conventions.
Drop CRT from the header once you hold RRT; keeping both signals uncertainty, not thoroughness.
Respiratory Therapist Salary
US government wage data for respiratory therapists shows a compressed but rising band, with critical-care experience, specialty credentials and night or transport differentials driving the top end.
USD 63,660 – USD 74,520 · entry · US
10th to 25th percentile annual wage.
USD 74,520 – USD 98,730 · mid · US
25th to 75th percentile; the May 2025 median is $82,280.
USD 98,730 – USD 118,050 · senior · US
75th to 90th percentile; lead, specialty-credentialed and high-cost-of-living roles cluster here.
Common Respiratory Therapist Resume Mistakes
Unit managers and credentialing teams reject RT resumes for predictable, avoidable reasons:
- Burying the credential. If RRT, licence and ACLS are not visible in the first three seconds, the screen may end before the experience is read.
- Duty lists without acuity: 'provided respiratory care to patients' could describe a nursing home or a surgical ICU, and the reader will assume the lower one.
- No modes, no equipment. A resume that never names ventilation modes, HFNC or capnography reads as ward-only experience regardless of the job title.
- Omitting codes and rapid responses. Emergency work is the clearest evidence of judgement under pressure, and leaving it out surrenders the strongest material.
- Letting expired certifications sit undated. Recruiters check ACLS currency; a missing date reads as a lapsed card.
- New graduates listing rotations as a single line. Rotations with hours, units and sign-offs are your experience section; compressing them to 'clinical placements completed' wastes the only clinical evidence you have.
Respiratory Therapist Resume FAQs
The questions RT candidates actually search while writing their resume, answered directly:
Lead with mechanical ventilation (invasive and non-invasive), weaning and SBT protocols, airway management, ABG sampling and interpretation, HFNC, BiPAP and CPAP, and code or rapid-response experience. Add equipment and EMR names, then a short soft-skills list anchored to the work, such as calm escalation during deteriorations.
Put them after your name in the header (Jane Doe, RRT, ACCS) and repeat them in a licensure section with jurisdiction and status: NBRC RRT, state licence, BLS and ACLS with expiry dates. Keep the licence number itself for application forms unless the posting requests it on the resume.
CRT is the entry-level NBRC credential; RRT is the advanced one, earned by passing the higher-cut TMC score plus the Clinical Simulation Examination. Many hospitals now hire RRT-only for ICU roles, so list RRT prominently if you hold it, and if you are CRT working toward RRT, say so with your exam timeline.
Yes, as the core of the experience section. List each rotation like a job: unit, hospital, hours, patient population and the skills signed off, such as ventilator checks or ABG draws. Around 1,200 supervised clinical hours is real experience; presented properly it carries a first application.
Yes. Most acute-care employers require current BLS and ACLS, and many screens filter on them, so list both with expiry dates. Add NRP if you attend deliveries and PALS for paediatric settings; matching the certification set to the unit you are applying to is a small edit that measurably lifts response rates.
One page for new graduates and up to two for experienced therapists. Spend the space on acuity numbers, settings and protocol work rather than repeating identical duties across jobs; when two roles overlap, keep the duty once and give the second role its distinct numbers.
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