Respiratory Care Week

Ideas for Respiratory Care Week Activities

Check out this list of ideas taken from member suggestions, past successes, and ideas borrowed from others.

Key Activities

There are some key actions that you can take for Respiratory Care Week, regardless of any budget/time constraints. Learn more…

Recognize Your Staff

Respiratory Care Week is all about the people who make up our profession. Honor and thank them during this week of recognition. Learn more…

All About Students, the Future RTs

Enthusiasm for entering the profession begins with learning about what respiratory therapists do. RC Week is a great opportunity to promote the career and to engage students in the local RT schools. Learn more…

Promoting Lung Health In Your Community

RC Week is the perfect time to get involved with community events and raise awareness about lung health and the profession. You’ll also gain recognition for your company or facility. Learn more…

At Your Facility or Company

Invite people to your hospital, home care company, or clinic so that they can learn more about lung health and what you do to care for respiratory patients. Learn more…

Public Relations

Public relations is all about building relationships and telling the public who you are, what you do, and where you are located. Learn more…

A Note for Manufacturers, Service Providers and Others

As our colleagues in industry, pharmaceuticals, services and more, you play a key role in respiratory care, too. Here are ideas for your participation in RC Week. Learn more…

Key Activities

• Announce Respiratory Care Week in your facility with newsletters, emails, posters or banners.
• Recognize the people on your team in some special way to show appreciation for their efforts (see ideas below).
• Encourage every RT to promote the profession and good lung health practices with patients, family, friends, and community.

Recognize Your Staff

• Acknowledge the accomplishments of your team, including administrative staff, with an awards luncheon or event.
• Thank everyone on your staff with a personal note or eCard.
• Make a video about your respiratory department and show it at a pizza party for your staff.
• Reward a staff member with an AARC membership, webcast, or online educational course.
• Hold a Brown Bag Lunch that provides continuing education credit.
• Raise funds with a raffle to send staff members to educational seminars, your state conference, or the AARC Congress.
• Give away door prizes at a staff Bingo night.
• Invite management to an RC Week staff function.
• Play a respiratory or department trivia game or have a mini-Sputum Bowl.
• Designate a friends and family day. Invite spouses and children to come to the facility to learn more about what you do.
• If your hospital sponsors research in respiratory diseases, ask the researchers to update your team on what's happening in this important arena.
• In addition to regular awards, make a recognition event fun with comedy awards for “most creative” moments or “fastest on your feet.”
• Send a thank you note to others who support your team with a formal letter to their managers.
• Take pictures of your activities and upload them to this website.

All About Students, the Future RTs

• Contact the local high school science clubs or health science education classes and offer to be a speaker about a career as a Respiratory Therapist.
• Invite the graduating class of local RT students to an information session or Q&A at your facility.
• Have a career day and invite students and guidance counselors to come to your facility to learn more about your department and the profession.
• Implement a mentoring program with RT students in your area.
• Ask local high schools or community colleges if they have career fairs and ask to participate.
• Many high schools and colleges have their own TV or radio stations. Contact them to see if you can get on a local show to talk about the profession.

Promoting Lung Health in Your Community

• Gather a team to participate in a local 5K or other fun run event and wear your RC Week t-shirts.
• Set up a table at a local fall fair with information about lung health awareness.
• Have a bowling tournament or volleyball tournament at a favorite local spot and invite the community and the press.
• Set up a fundraiser to send a pediatric patient to Asthma Camp.
• Contact local school administrators and school nurses about participating in the AARC’s Peak Performance USA.
• Conduct an “MDI/DPI Check-Up Clinic” to check your patients’ techniques with their aerosol delivery devices.
• Enlist an asthma patient who participates in school sports to encourage other young patients to become more active.
• Get involved with community anti-smoking campaigns.
• Invite local television, radio, and newspaper reporters to take a spirometry test and learn why such testing is important.
• Work with fitness experts from local health clubs about exercises for COPD patients. Ask local television stations to cover it.
• Offer a free session on asthma triggers at the library, YMCA, senior center, or community center.
• Perform spirometry screenings at a local senior center on Lung Health Day.
• Provide local public libraries and senior centers with a listing of website addresses to post for patrons.

At Your Facility or Company

• Put an announcement on your facility's computer network.
• Organize an art show and ask your pediatric patients to create posters about breathing or air.
• Get your healthcare institution certified for QRCR and award/display it during RC Week. Then notify local media outlets of this accomplishment, too.
• Ask a local chef to prepare some healthy foods in an educational activity for your COPD patients.
• Place an announcement about your activities in the hospital newsletter/calendar of events.
• Have a peak flow contest to see who has the most “hot air”.
• Organize a Vent 5K.
• Hold a brown bag lunch and invite other facility staff to help bring them up to date on the latest advances in respiratory care.
• Show the Life and Breath video in the cafeteria during a lunch hour to demonstrate the role of respiratory therapists in healthcare.

Public Relations

• Encourage your management, marketing and public relations departments to get involved in your activities to gain free publicity for the facility or company.
• Ask local/regional newspapers and magazines if they are doing a special editorial series in the field of healthcare or health careers. Perhaps they can feature your team.
• Get on the morning show on TV or radio to talk about RC Week and your profession.
• Host a silent auction to raise money for a scholarship for an RT student.
• Invite your local, state, or national elected official into your facility and explain why it's important that respiratory therapy is covered in all care settings, including home care. Make it a public screening event, and be sure the media is on hand.
• See what your state society is doing. Are there any statewide events going on?
• Send your respiratory product reps an email about RC Week event dates and let them know your plans.
• Tell your state society and your AARC public relations department what you're doing to promote RC Week. You may just make it into our national magazine or be featured on the website.

A Note to Manufacturers, Service Providers, and Others

• Send a letter to each customer with sentiments for RC Week.
• Send a company-wide announcement to your employees announcing Respiratory Care Week, your role in the profession, and the importance of RTs in healthcare
• Post a message or banner on your company website recognizing Respiratory Care Week and respiratory therapists.
• Sponsor an in-service educational event for your customers in honor of RC Week.
• Place an RC Week congratulatory advertisement in professional publications read by RTs.
• Make a company donation to a respiratory charity or foundation in the name of respiratory therapists.