OneMSU's Distance Learning Solution
The OneMSU Network is a partnership between Gallatin College MSU in Bozeman, City College at MSU Billings, and Great Falls College MSU. Thanks to the OneMSU Network, you can get a two-year, career-oriented degree, regardless of whether you live in a rural community or major city. From enrolling in prerequisites to earning your degree, the OneMSU Network lets you stay connected to your family, your friends, and your community while you get an education to launch your career.
Thanks to the OneMSU Network, you can now get a two-year AAS degree in Respiratory Therapy from Great Falls College MSU and experience everything distance-learning education has to offer. Through the OneMSU Network you can:
- Take prerequisites for the respiratory therapy program through City College.
- Once prerequisites are complete, apply to the Great Falls College Respiratory Therapy Program and, if accepted, take labs and clinicals locally or with minimal travel.
Respiratory Therapy Career
Similar to nurses, respiratory therapists attend to patients’ bedside care, but these healthcare professionals will likely tell you their work is much more specialized.
As experts in the cardiopulmonary system, respiratory therapists often serve on critical care teams, supporting critically ill patients whenever breathing problems occur. They might also work with anesthesiologists to monitor patients' breathing after surgery, operate life-saving mechanical ventilators, attend high-risk births, or help diagnose sleep disorders like sleep apnea, among many other job functions.
Most people take breathing for granted, but for the thousands of people who suffer from breathing problems, each breath is a major achievement. Those people include heart-attack and trauma victims; patients with chronic lung problems such as bronchitis, asthma, and emphysema; premature infants; and people with lung cancer, AIDS, and cystic fibrosis. In each instance, patients will likely work with a respiratory therapist under the direction of a physician.
Jobs in the respiratory therapy field are expected to grow much faster than average, and respiratory therapists in Montana earn a median annual wage of $58,420!
Respiratory Therapy Program Overview
Accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Respiratory Care, the Great Falls College Respiratory Therapy Program is designed to help you develop the skills required for a successful career as a respiratory therapist. Upon completion of the AAS degree in respiratory therapy, graduates will be prepared for a career as a respiratory therapist. Graduates are eligible to take the National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC) Certification and Registry practitioner examinations.
Prerequisite Course Work Completed at City College
Individuals can initially apply to attend City College and work with an Academic Advisor to create a plan to complete the prerequisite courses required for this program. The Academic Advisor will also assist students in applying to Great Falls College and directing them to the competitive application process for this program. If you have any questions as to college work taken outside of the MUS system, the Academic Advisor will collaborate with the Great Falls Program Director to verify if that work can be utilized to fulfill prerequisite courses or other general education.
Core Respiratory Therapy Program Delivery
In this delivery method, there is a combination of online learning activities where one or more types of technologies are used to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor in space and time.
- Academic course content such as lectures, quizzes, and exams will be available online asynchronously, meaning students are required to work through this material according to the course schedule, but the content is available 24/7.
- Clinical and laboratory attendance is required according to the schedule designed by faculty and the local clinical sites. The days, hours, and locations of these sessions will vary but an advance schedule will be provided to allow students to plan accordingly. Full details of clinical and lab sessions will be provided once students are in the program. In general, students should expect to be in a lab session at a local clinic around 3 hours per week and in a clinical session 2-3 days a week with varying times. Labs begin the first semester and clinical the second semester.
The local (clinical) and online (classwork) components of this program allow students to become a Respiratory Therapist where they live and offers flexibility in learning times to accommodate busy lives. However, this type of learning requires a great level of self-control, motivation and dedication to studies and schedule. Make no mistake, this is a full-time commitment, and students should expect to spend a minimum of 40 hours per week working on coursework and clinical sessions, usually more.
In addition to the amount of time students are investing in their education, participating in this distance program means they also have to take the initiative to establish connections with the community for their clinical locations. They must be resilient in an environment that requires them to self-advocate, be vocal about their needs, and be self-motivated to arrange what they need in order to succeed.
The face-to-face component of the program is utilized for the lab and clinical where the students must be in a clinical facility with an identified preceptor. Additionally, due to the distance nature of the program, reliable and high-quality technology and computer competency are necessary. Students in this program must have:
- a reliable computer
- easily accessible and reliable high-speed internet
- quick adaptability to technology
- a wireless mobile device with network and GPS functionality.
Selecting a Clinical Site
Great Falls College has existing agreements with regional clinical facilities that you may work with in the following communities:
- Great Falls
- Billings
- Bozeman
- Kalispell/Whitefish
In addition, students may attend labs and clinical in other communities, either in part or full, depending on that facility's ability to provide the level of competency required by the program. For example, a student living in Butte, Lewistown, Helena, Anaconda, Sidney, Wolf Point, Glendive, Cody or any other community may be able to complete portions of their clinical courses locally but will require travel and lodging to attend a regional medical facility to complete adult and neonatal critical care training and specialty care rotations.
For more detailed information on the Local & Online aspects of the program, contact Brian Cayko at brian.cayko@gfcmsu.edu or go to Great Falls College Respiratory Therapy homepage: www.gfcmsu.edu/webs/respiratorycare
