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A textbook coauthored by Respiratory Care Professor Ruben Restrepo, MD RRT, FAARC, FCCP, is geared toward preparing respiratory therapists for the Adult Critical Care Specialty (ACCS) exam while also providing essential information for all members of critical care teams.

Dr. Restrepo, coordinator for research in the Division of Respiratory Care, collaborated on “Respiratory Critical Care” with primary lead author David W. Chang and coauthors Gary C. White and Jonathan B. Waugh. Launched last year, the textbook “is all about respiratory critical care, making sure the reader gets enough information on how to treat patients in all aspects of the ICU,” Dr. Restrepo said. “The audience is pretty much every single clinician who is responsible for patients in the ICU undergoing mechanical ventilation.”

Beyond preparing respiratory therapists seeking their ACCS credential, the text dedicates nine of its 15 chapters to mechanical ventilation and is a valuable resource for all members of a critical care team, including physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists, Dr. Restrepo said. The text also contains content for the Therapist Multiple Choice (TMC) exam. 

“It teaches principles of mechanical ventilation, how to set up the ventilators according to patient clinical status or condition and focuses on how to wean from mechanical ventilation,” he said. The textbook also covers topics including neonatal and pediatric aspects of mechanical ventilation, as well as a broad range of critical care topics, including life support, pharmacotherapy and procedures in critical care.

“Being a lead author on any textbook is an enormous contribution and dedication to the profession,” said Rick Wettstein, MEd, RRT, FAARC, associate professor and respiratory care program director. “This is a huge accomplishment for him to have seen this book through from the beginning and now publication.” 

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised the awareness of the role respiratory therapists play in critical care, Dr. Restrepo said. “COVID has placed respiratory therapy on the map. Everyone knows about respiratory therapy.”

“I don’t think many people before the pandemic could envision what someone in the ICU looked like,” he said. “I think today if you say, ‘Close your eyes and imagine what a patient in the ICU is going through,’ they will now get a clear picture of someone connected to a ventilator.”