Clinical Practice in Respiratory Care (ISBN 0397550936)

It's Like a Combined Version of Egans and Burtons:
Clinical Practice in Respiratory Care covers the entire range of respiratory therapy and explores the key information and skills required for patient assessment, utilization of equipment, devising an effective care plan, and for overall critical thinking. I like Clinical Practice in Respiratory Care because it is like a combined and condensed version of Egans and Burton's classic books on respiratory care. It has all of the substance of these books and at the same time has a heavy emphasis on applying those concepts to the clinical practitioner. The authors have provided the reader with case scenarios, care plans, critical thinking challenges, and numerous graphs and tables for better clarification of difficult concepts. Clinical Practice in Respiratory Care is ideal for the respiratory therapy student and for the graduate studying for the CRT and RRT examinations. It is also great for the practicing therapist, nurse, or even a physician whose knowledge needs to be refreshed or just wants to stay up to date on the latest ideas. It's a purchase well worth your money.

This book is too Equipment based:
We had this book for the first two semesters of our respiratory classes. I felt it didn't have enough information about how to instruct a patient on therapies and the indications or hazards of repiratory therapies. It was too equipment based, which is not what the book is supposed to be intended for. I liked the Egan's Fundamentals of respiratory care book better. This book is probably good for therapists in the field, but I would not recommend it to students. The anatomy and physiology chapet was very short, not enough information at all. I liked the Terry Des Jardins bok for any cardiopulmonary anatomy and physiology.

Wish this was our textbook when I was a student!:
This is the greatest respiratory care textbook ever written. Gerald Hunt was one of the respiratory care teachers at Butte College, in Oroville, CA, where I graduated from. Unfortunately he left just before I entered the program, but his knowledge was legendary. After he left he finished this textbook. I read his textbook, cover to cover, a few years after I graduated. Wow. I wish we had this book when I was a student. When I am king, this will be the main textbook in all respiratory care programs.