“When students decide they want to go into health care, they typically think of two things – a physician or a nurse. However, if you look at what comprises the health care team, it’s allied health professionals making up two-thirds of the team, and that’s a wide description of everybody else besides nurses or physicians,” says Dr. Don Samples, dean of the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences at East Tennessee State University.
“It’s the physical therapists, the occupational therapists, the speech-language pathologists, the respiratory therapists, the radiographers, the nutritionists and social workers,” he said. “All those are academic programs we have in this college from which our graduates are working in both the acute care setting, which is the hospitals, and long-term care settings, such as nursing homes and rehab centers.”
His college provides a degree pathway to many of those professions, including allied health, dental hygiene, radiologic science, social work, and prosthetics and orthotics. Certificate programs are available in computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and sport nutrition.
Also among the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences’ offerings are programs in six of the 2022 “Best Health Care Jobs,” according to U.S. News & World Report. These are speech-language pathology, respiratory therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nutrition and audiology.
Professionals in all of these fields are in high demand, Samples says, which bodes well for the future of the college’s students and graduates.
“It’s reassuring for me at graduation every year, when we see our graduates walk across the stage and receive their diploma, that I know they have two things that are guaranteed to them,” he said. “And those two things are plenty of job opportunities, so regardless of where they relocate, whether it’s in this region or across the country, there’s a very high probability there’ll be positions available for them. Also, they’ll be able to afford a very good quality of life and standard of living.”
According to Samples, many of the academic programs in Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences are readily recognized by students, while others may not come as readily to mind.
“Respiratory Therapy and Nutrition don’t have the name recognition that a lot of our other programs have, but their employment rate and salaries are extremely good. It’s just that the general community isn’t aware of what a respiratory therapist does or what a clinical dietitian does. And a lot of that has come to the forefront with the pandemic in the last couple of years, especially about the key roles respiratory therapists play in treating patients with COVID-19.”
“Most people think the doctors and nurses run the ventilators that make sure the patients ventilate. They don’t,” said Donna Lilly, assistant professor and director of the Respiratory Therapy Program in the Department of Allied Health Sciences. “Respiratory therapists are the ones who turn the buttons to determine how deep the patient breathes, how fast they breathe, how much oxygen they get.
“We work with patients from little bitty babies who are born too early and their lungs haven’t developed, all the way up to the elderly who can’t breathe on their own. And COVID has really made a big impact on them.”
Respiratory therapy is projected to grow 23% by 2030, or much faster than average, and the median pay in the field is $62,810, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook. And while the typical entry level of education is an associate degree, Lilly says a bachelor’s degree like that offered by ETSU holds advantages for respiratory therapists, such as qualification to run blood gas labs, teach, and move into supervisory roles.
Senior respiratory therapy student Kendyl Lanowitz of Kernersville, North Carolina, appreciates the wide variety of clinical experiences afforded by ETSU’s Respiratory Therapy Program, with rotations in various sections of acute care hospitals, as well as nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities.
“Ever since I was in high school,” Lanowitz said, “I knew that I wanted to be in health care, but didn’t know what I wanted to do until I studied the cardiovascular system in the ‘Anatomy and Physiology’ class. I learned about respiratory therapy and realized that’s what I can see myself doing. I want to help people, and this is how I want to help people.”
Respiratory Therapy alumna Alexis McVey agrees. The 2021 graduate who grew up in Jonesborough now works at Bristol Regional Medical Center. “It gave me an opportunity to get a job that allows me to make a difference in people’s lives, even if it’s just one person a day. I feel like I’m making a change,” she said. “I like the versatility of it, being able to do something kind of different each day, each time I go to work.”
Nutrition majors may go on to become registered dietitians and go into clinical work in health care settings, school nutrition, sports nutrition or corporate health, while some go into medical school, physical therapy or other fields, according to Mary Andreae, an assistant professor of nutrition in the Department of Rehabilitative Sciences.
“There’s a variety, and that’s just scratching the surface,” said Andreae. “There are a lot of areas where people can fine-tune their love for nutrition and working with people. They can find their niche.”
The job market for dietitians and nutritionists is expected to grow by 11% by 2030, and the median pay is $63,090 annually, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Kayla Chambers, a junior from Knoxville, was working toward a career in physical therapy when a “Sports Nutrition” course led her to change direction.
“I’m learning the muscles in all my other classes, but if you don’t give your muscles what you need, they can’t even form in the first place,” said Chambers, who plans to attend graduate school at ETSU and become a registered dietitian. “You can’t even survive without food. What are you putting in your body? It’s so cool and so fascinating how it just controls everything. Everything you put in your body is what you get out.”
Visit the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences website at etsu.edu/crhs to learn more about the wide variety of academic programs it offers. To see the U.S. News & World Report listing of “Best Health Care Jobs,” go to money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/rankings/best-healthcare-jobs.
