Respiratory Care for Practitioners The Division of Respiratory Care at Long Island University currently offers a baccalaureate degree in Respiratory Care for students interested in pre-professional training (Hegis Code). Professionals can obtain licenses to practice respiratory care in most states after attending certificate or associate degree training programs. The certificate option will be phased out in 2002. Published data and program requests have demonstrated that many practitioners without baccalaureate degrees would like to complete one. A recent survey of respiratory care managers has also shown that a degree major that emphasizes advanced practice in respiratory care was valued most highly. The baccalaureate completion program described below provides a pathway for working professionals to complete an undergraduate degree in respiratory care. A candidate for the baccalaureate completion program must hold the National Board for Respiratory Care's (NBRC) CRT credential (entry-level credential). Degree candidates without the NBRC CRT credential need to complete the pre-professional undergraduate degree program. All baccalaureate completion candidates need to fulfill all standards specified in the University's Bulletin. A summary of these standards is listed below: Fulfill the liberal arts and sciences requirement Complete a minimum of 15 upper division credits in the Respiratory Care major (200 and 300 level courses) The last 32 credits must be completed in residence Complete a minimum of 128 credits to graduate In addition, baccalaureate completion students need to achieve the following standards for professional students within the Respiratory Care Division. Those standards are as follows: Complete the math and science requirements or their equivalent with a grade of C+ or higher: Math 30, Math 100, Biology 101, Biology 131, Biology 132, Chemistry 3x, Physics 31 (RC 141, will be waived for baccalaureate completion candidates) Maintain a C+ or higher grade in all respiratory care professional courses Maintain a 2.75 GPA (back to top) ADMISSION Admission into the program will follow the University's standard admission process. The Office of Admissions will evaluate prior academic transcripts and grant appropriate transfer credit for courses with grades of C or higher. The Respiratory Care Program Director or his/her designee will evaluate transcripts of prior respiratory care courses taken at outside institutions and identify the appropriate amount of transfer credit for respiratory care courses taken earning grades of C or higher. Students may also apply for Life Experience Credits or apply for a Challenge Examination by following the University's existing regulations. (back to top) REQUIREMENTS (back to top) Requirements for the professional courses in the baccalaureate completion program will be the same as those for the current pre-professional program with the following exceptions. Baccalaureate completion candidates do not need to take professional phase courses in the same sequence as pre-professional students as long as they have the prerequisite coursework or life experience in order to enroll in the desired course. The only exceptions are the advanced clinical and senior project requirements that must be taken at the end of the program. Also, baccalaureate completion candidates will be given the option of taking RC 333, an advanced clinical course, for the advanced clinical courses (RC 229, RC 330). The course RC 302, a senior project course, may be substituted for RC 331. The rationale for these substitutions is that the bulk of the content in RC 229 and RC 330 focus on gaining sufficient clinical skills to enter into practice, a level already achieved by baccalaureate completion candidates. The course RC 333 was created as a more appropriate titleernative for those candidates with significant work experience. In RC 331, students work on a senior project and prepare for the NBRC registry exams. Again, RC 302 was created to offer a more appropriate titleernative for candidates already holding the NBRC registry credential. The course RC 301, Independent Study, is the only new course is not a substitute for a preprofessional course. This elective course was developed to allow advanced practitioners an opportunity to pursue a specialized area of study consistent with their professional goals. An advanced student may wish to combine RC 301 and RC 302 to develop a project that can later be published in a refereed journal. Pre-professional students who wish to take an additional course during their senior year are also eligible for RC 301. Complete course descriptions for all new courses can be found in Appendix A. A comparison of differences between the current pre-professional program and the proposed baccalaureate completion program is outlined below. Appendix B contains the Bulletin descriptions for all respiratory care courses for pre-professional students. (back to top)   Comparison between Current Pre-Professional and Baccalaureate Completion Programs (back to top) Pre-Professional Courses Admission Complete all pre-professional math and science courses with C+ or higher and cumulative GPA of 2.5 Liberal arts requirements Differences for Baccalaureate Completion BS Degree Hold NBRC CRT credential Pre-professional math and science courses do not need to be sequenced prior to professional courses Math 30 and Math 100 RC 141 is not required Biology 101, 131, 132   RC 141   Professional Phase Courses Requirements for Pre-Professional BS Degree Differences for Baccalaureate Completion BS Degree Hold NBRC CRT credential Pre-professional math and science courses do not need to be sequenced prior to professional courses RC 101 - Cardiopulmonary Physiology RC 302 - Senior Project, may be substituted for RC 131 RC 333 - Advanced Clinical Experience, may be substituted for RC 229 and RC 330 RC 103 - Clinical Application of Acid-Base Balance RC 107 - Pulmonary Function RC 109 - Clinical Experience I RC 112 - Theory & Practice of RC I   RC 200 - Pulmonary Pathophysiology   RC 205 - Cardiopulmonary Medical Science   RC 206 - Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Techniques   RC 210 - Clinical Experience II   RC 213 - Theory & Practice of RC II   RC 214 - Cardiorespiratory Pharmacology   RC 215 - Selected Topics in Internal Medicine   RC 225- Neonatal & Pediatric Respiratory Care   RC 229 - Clinical Experience III   RC 311 - Cardiopulmonary Physiology II   RC 330 - Clinical Experience IV   RC 331 - Problems in Respiratory Care       Elective Course   RC 301 - Independent Study     (back to top)