by Ricci Ellis, Miss February 2017

I just did a “day in the life” post about a day I have off work on The Women Blogger’s Instagram account so today I thought I would take you through a day of my work life!

I am a Registered Respiratory Therapist and I work at two of Little Rock’s best hospitals! I work at UAMS full-time (3 days/week) and I am as needed at St Vincent. I work 12-hour shifts, hence the 3 days per week as full time. As much as I hate getting up at 430am on the days I work I appreciate only having to work 3 days a week.

So let’s get to it…

4:00 am. Alarm goes off and I hit snooze. A lot. I know I shouldn’t but I am one of those people who hits snooze without even realizing it so I hit it for at least 30 minutes, HA! I don’t call myself the Queen of Procrastination for nothing…

4:30 am: Actually get out of bed, take a shower and get ready for work. At this point in the morning, I have to make Sophie puppy get out of bed and go outside. She’s very huffy in the morning and does her business as fast as she can so she can get back in my bed and go back to sleep. Oh to live the life of a lap dog…

5:45 am. Leave the house! Most days I am running late so I usually eat breakfast in the car on the way. If I don’t grab a banana and a Spark for the road then I will most likely stop at McDonald’s and grab a Caramel Frappe. Frappes are my weakness. I love love love those things!! #Addicted

6:20 am. Get to work and clock in. At this point, I get a report, gather the equipment I need and then get to work seeing patients. I am able to work everywhere in the hospital so I never know where I will be when I go in to work each day. My favorite place to work is the NICU but I also enjoy the adult ICU and the floors.

Most people aren’t really sure what a Respiratory Therapist is or what we do until they need us so I will give you a quick description of my job! Respiratory Therapists work in all areas of the hospital. We work in all adult areas of the hospital giving breathing treatments, drawing arterial blood gasses, assisting doctors during intubation (inserting breathing tubes) and bronchoscopy procedures, setting up and maintaining ventilators (machine that breathes for you), suctioning patients, helping with trachs, assessing and educating patients and working in traumas and in code situations.

In the Neonatal ICU (my fave) we do all of the things we do for adults except we also go on high-risk deliveries and help with newborn resuscitations. Working with the neonates is really my favorite and so incredibly rewarding.

As a Registered Respiratory Therapist, I went to school for 4 years getting all my pre-requisites (I changed my major a few times…LOL) and then I transferred to UAMS where I went to school for another 3 years and finally obtained my bachelor’s degree in Cardio-Respiratory Care. I then had to sit for three board exams to get my Registered status. I have to do continuing education every year so that I maintain my Registered status, my state and national license.

11 am. Lunch time aka my favorite part of the day!!

12 pm. See more patients.

2 pm. Snack/coffee time!! I always need more caffeine in the afternoons and luckily for me, both hospitals I work in have fabulous coffee shops!

4 pm. See more patients!

6:53 pm. Clock out and go home!! Hallelujah and praise Jesus!!

6:55 pm. Sit in car and ponder what to do. Should I go to the gym? Not if I have to work again the next day. Grab something to go on the way home or wait to get home and eat? Depends on how hungry I am.

7:30 pm. Get home. Obviously, I have ignored the gym completely and decided to just grab something at home to eat. On the days I work I do not want to come home and make anything to eat so it’s either leftovers or cereal. As soon as I get home I let Sophie outside and take a quick shower before changing into comfy clothes/pj’s.

8 pm. Plant myself on the couch and eat dinner, check email and social media, attempt to watch tv.

9:30 pm. Crawl into bed and pass out because I have to get up at 4:30 the next day and do it all over again.

And that is a day of my work life. You can see I really don’t do much in the way of blogging or blog related on the days I work because I don’t have time! I usually set aside a whole day once a week and write all my blog posts, take pics for the blog, and schedule everything out on social media.

There was a time that I tried writing every night but I just wasn’t any good. I was super stressed all the time and that just makes for really bad writing and really dark photos. So after a few years of trial and error, I have found that this just works for me right now.

Hope you had fun following along on one of my work days!!