Top 12 Respiratory Therapist Skills to Put on Your Resume

Respiratory therapy lives in the details. The right skills on a resume don’t just fill space—they flag competence, judgment, and readiness for complex care. Below you’ll find 12 core skills that show depth, sharpen your profile, and make hiring managers pause for a closer look.

Respiratory Therapist Skills

1. Ventilator Management
2. Pulmonary Function Testing
3. Oxygen Therapy
4. Aerosol Medication Administration
5. CPAP/BiPAP
6. Airway Management
7. Mechanical Ventilation
8. Arterial Blood Gas Analysis
9. Neonatal Resuscitation
10. Patient Education
11. Spirometry
12. High-Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation

1. Ventilator Management

Ventilator management means setting up, monitoring, and adjusting a ventilator so a patient gets the gas exchange they need without causing harm. It’s a moving target—tailored to physiology, diagnosis, and response.

Why It's Important

Good management prevents lung injury, speeds liberation, and shapes outcomes. Poor management does the opposite.

How to Improve Ventilator Management Skills

Dial in the fundamentals, then refine:

1. Assessment and Monitoring: Track work of breathing, synchrony, and gas exchange. ABGs, capnography, and vigilant bedside observation guide tweaks before problems snowball.

2. Lung-Protective Strategies: Use low tidal volumes and appropriate PEEP to limit overdistension and collapse. Keep driving pressures reasonable.

3. Education and Training: Keep current with guidance from professional societies. Simulation sharpens instincts.

4. Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Align with physicians, nurses, and pharmacists. Plans change; stay aligned.

5. Patient Comfort and Sedation: Balance comfort without oversedation. Tools like RASS help.

6. Weaning and Liberation: Use structured weaning plans and spontaneous breathing trials to shorten time on the vent.

7. Use of Technology: Know advanced modes and when they help. Use them thoughtfully, not reflexively.

Consistent habits here cut complications and smooth the path to extubation.

How to Display Ventilator Management Skills on Your Resume

2. Pulmonary Function Testing

PFTs measure volumes, flows, and gas transfer. They reveal obstruction, restriction, and diffusion problems that exams alone miss.

Why It's Important

Accurate testing guides diagnosis, therapy choices, and follow-up. It turns guesswork into data.

How to Improve Pulmonary Function Testing Skills

1. Accurate Calibration: Calibrate per manufacturer specs and ATS/ERS standards. No shortcuts.

2. Patient Preparation: Explain the “why” and the “how.” Clear coaching lifts test quality.

3. Standardized Technique: Spirometry, DLCO, lung volumes—apply the correct protocols and posture every time.

4. Quality Control: Build routine review of curves, acceptability, and repeatability into workflow.

5. Stay Current: Use appropriate reference equations (e.g., GLI 2022 race-neutral values) and keep up with updates.

Better prep plus tight QC equals cleaner data and better clinical decisions.

How to Display Pulmonary Function Testing Skills on Your Resume

3. Oxygen Therapy

Supplemental oxygen keeps tissues fed when lungs fall short. The trick is matching device and flow to the moment.

Why It's Important

Too little oxygen harms organs. Too much can injure lungs or worsen hypercapnia. Precision matters.

How to Improve Oxygen Therapy Skills

1. Assess Often: Trend SpO2 and ABGs. Adjust flow thoughtfully, not by habit.

2. Right Device, Right Time: Cannula, simple mask, Venturi, HFNC, or escalation to NIV/ventilation—pick based on need and tolerance.

3. Safe Targets: In most acute settings aim 92–96% SpO2. For hypercapnic risk (e.g., COPD), target 88–92% and reassess with ABGs.

4. Patient Education: Teach equipment use, safety, and adherence for home oxygen users.

5. Equipment Care: Verify function, cleanliness, and humidification when indicated.

Small, timely adjustments steer patients away from both hypoxemia and harm.

How to Display Oxygen Therapy Skills on Your Resume

4. Aerosol Medication Administration

Delivering meds as a mist puts therapy where it’s needed—down in the airways—while limiting systemic exposure.

Why It's Important

Right drug, right device, right technique. That’s how you turn prescriptions into real relief for asthma, COPD, and more.

How to Improve Aerosol Medication Administration Skills

1. Match Device to Patient: MDI, DPI, or nebulizer based on dexterity, age, and severity.

2. Technique First: Teach timing, inhalation, and breath-hold. Check and recheck technique at follow-up.

3. Verify Compatibility: Ensure nebulizer and med pairings are appropriate.

4. Keep It Clean: Maintain devices to prevent contamination and ensure dosing accuracy.

5. Monitor Response: Reassess symptoms, peak flows, or spirometry and adjust plans.

Education plus routine technique checks turn inconsistent therapy into consistent benefit.

How to Display Aerosol Medication Administration Skills on Your Resume

5. CPAP/BiPAP

CPAP provides one continuous pressure; BiPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure) uses a higher inspiratory level and a lower expiratory level. Noninvasive support without a tube—when chosen well—can spare an intubation.

Why It's Important

It reduces work of breathing, improves gas exchange, and buys time for underlying treatment to work in sleep apnea, COPD exacerbations, cardiogenic pulmonary edema, and more.

How to Improve CPAP/BiPAP Skills

1. Prioritize Fit: Find a mask that seals without skin breakdown. Teach patients to adjust straps and cushions.

2. Gentle Titration: Ramp to prescribed pressures to improve tolerance. Reassess leaks and synchrony.

3. Add Humidification: Reduce dryness and congestion to improve adherence.

4. Coach and Support: Provide troubleshooting tips, follow-up, and encouragement. Adherence climbs with attention.

5. Review Data: Use device reports or telemonitoring to fine-tune settings and address residual events.

6. Address Nasal Symptoms: Manage congestion or dryness to prevent drop-off.

7. Promote Consistency: Daily use beats “as needed.” Reinforce the payoff.

Comfort plus coaching turns reluctant users into nightly regulars.

How to Display CPAP/BiPAP Skills on Your Resume

6. Airway Management

Protect it, open it, keep it open. From basic maneuvers to advanced devices, airway management is time-sensitive craftwork.

Why It's Important

Ventilation and oxygenation hinge on a secure airway. Miss it, and everything else unravels.

How to Improve Airway Management Skills

1. Keep Learning: Refresh protocols, review algorithms, and maintain credentials regularly.

2. Hands-On Reps: Simulation and supervised practice hardwire technique under pressure.

3. Leverage Tools: Know your devices—video laryngoscopes, supraglottic airways, bougies—and their quirks.

4. Follow Protocols: Use established difficult airway pathways and preoxygenation strategies.

5. Communicate: Clear role assignment and closed-loop communication lift success rates.

6. Debrief: After-action reviews expose blind spots and cement lessons.

7. Individualize: Consider anatomy, pathology, and patient priorities in every plan.

Prepared teams, practiced hands. That’s what changes outcomes.

How to Display Airway Management Skills on Your Resume

7. Mechanical Ventilation

Positive-pressure ventilation through an endotracheal or tracheostomy tube supports or replaces spontaneous breathing. The goal: adequate oxygenation and CO2 removal with the least possible harm.

Why It's Important

Careful settings and timely adjustments prevent respiratory failure from spiraling and set up a safer wean.

How to Improve Mechanical Ventilation Skills

1. Synchrony First: Hunt for dyssynchrony and fix triggers, flow, rise time, or mode before sedation escalates.

2. Lung Protection: Use low tidal volumes (about 4–8 mL/kg ideal body weight) and appropriate PEEP. Watch driving pressure.

3. Daily SBTs: Assess readiness to wean with structured spontaneous breathing trials.

4. Prone in Moderate–Severe ARDS: Proning improves oxygenation and outcomes when used early and long enough.

5. Conservative Fluids in ARDS: Less fluid can mean better lungs and shorter vent time.

6. Tailor to the Patient: Disease-specific strategies, frequent reassessment, and swift course corrections.

Protect the lungs today to make extubation tomorrow more likely.

How to Display Mechanical Ventilation Skills on Your Resume

8. Arterial Blood Gas Analysis

ABGs reveal oxygenation, ventilation, and acid–base status in minutes. Clean sampling and sharp interpretation make them powerful.

Why It's Important

Treatment pivots on these numbers—ventilator changes, oxygen adjustments, and metabolic evaluation all ride on ABG clarity.

How to Improve Arterial Blood Gas Analysis Skills

1. Know the Physiology: Master acid–base frameworks and compensation rules.

2. Perfect the Draw: Allen test when indicated, remove air bubbles, mix gently, analyze promptly.

3. QC Your Analyzer: Calibration and maintenance prevent misleading results.

4. Practice Interpretation: Regular case reviews build speed and accuracy under pressure.

5. Collaborate: Tough cases benefit from team discussion and trend analysis.

Good sampling plus good thinking beats guesswork every time.

How to Display Arterial Blood Gas Analysis Skills on Your Resume

9. Neonatal Resuscitation

When a newborn struggles to breathe, seconds matter. Establish the airway, ventilate effectively, and support circulation with precise, gentle care.

Why It's Important

Early, effective ventilation prevents hypoxic injury and changes a life’s trajectory before it starts.

How to Improve Neonatal Resuscitation Skills

1. Follow Current NRP Guidance: Refresh frequently; protocols do evolve.

2. Simulation: Practice high-stakes steps—positioning, mask seal, coordinated compressions—in realistic scenarios.

3. Ventilation Mastery: Focus on proper rate, pressure, and chest rise. Gentle hands, accurate breaths.

4. Know the Equipment: T-piece resuscitators, pulse oximetry, temperature management—be fluent.

5. Team Coordination: Assign roles, speak clearly, and debrief after every event.

6. Continuous Development: Courses, drills, and case reviews keep skills sharp.

Preparation and poise build confidence when alarms go off.

How to Display Neonatal Resuscitation Skills on Your Resume

10. Patient Education

Teach the condition, the plan, the tools—and patients start steering their own care with you riding shotgun.

Why It's Important

Education drives adherence, trims readmissions, and improves daily life. Patients who understand, act.

How to Improve Patient Education Skills

1. Start With a Baseline: Ask what they know. Fill gaps, don’t drown them.

2. Speak Plainly: Skip jargon. Short, clear messages stick.

3. Show, Don’t Just Tell: Demonstrate inhaler technique, devices, and breathing exercises. Have them teach-back.

4. Handouts and Reminders: Provide simple written steps or checklists they can reference later.

5. Invite Questions: Curiosity signals engagement. Encourage it.

6. Follow Up: Revisit skills, adjust plans, celebrate progress.

7. Stay Current: Update materials as guidelines change.

Education is a skill. Treat it like one—with practice and polish.

How to Display Patient Education Skills on Your Resume

11. Spirometry

Measures how fast and how much air moves. It’s the frontline test for airflow limitation.

Why It's Important

It clarifies diagnosis, tracks control, and guides therapy in asthma, COPD, and beyond.

How to Improve Spirometry Skills

1. Prep Patients: Explain the maneuver. Avoid smoking, alcohol, or big meals a few hours beforehand if possible.

2. Positioning Matters: Upright, feet flat, tight seal. Small details, big impact.

3. Coach Hard Exhalations: Full inhalation, then fast, forceful, and complete exhalation until no more comes out. Demonstrate if needed.

4. Maintain Equipment: Calibrate and service per guidelines to protect accuracy.

5. Repeatability: Aim for at least three acceptable efforts with top values within 150 mL for FEV1 and FVC (per updated standards).

6. Interpret in Context: Use appropriate reference values (e.g., GLI 2022) and consider the whole clinical picture.

7. Keep Learning: Periodic refresher training maintains high-quality testing.

Great coaching turns “blow harder” into usable, reliable data.

How to Display Spirometry Skills on Your Resume

12. High-Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation

HFOV delivers tiny tidal volumes at very high rates to maintain recruitment and gas exchange while aiming to reduce lung injury. Most common in neonatal and selected pediatric populations; adult use is limited and reserved for specific rescue scenarios.

Why It's Important

When conventional ventilation fails—or risks further injury—HFOV can be a strategic alternative in carefully selected patients, especially neonates.

How to Improve High-Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation Skills

1. Choose Wisely: Consider HFOV for severe hypoxemic failure (e.g., neonatal RDS/ARDS) when conventional strategies falter. In adults, use cautiously and selectively.

2. Optimize MAP: Incrementally adjust mean airway pressure to improve oxygenation while watching hemodynamics.

3. Tune Amplitude: Increase amplitude to enhance CO2 clearance, balancing chest wiggle and comfort.

4. Set Frequency: Lower frequencies aid CO2 removal (adults ~6–8 Hz; higher in neonates). Adjust to goals and patient size.

5. Monitor Closely: Follow ABGs, vitals, and imaging to gauge recruitment and avoid overdistension.

6. Recruit Thoughtfully: Use cautious recruitment maneuvers with vigilant monitoring.

7. Sedation/Analgesia: Ensure comfort and minimize asynchrony; paralysis may be required in select cases.

8. Plan the Exit: Reassess often and transition back to conventional ventilation when feasible; consider ECMO referral pathways for refractory cases.

Expert selection and meticulous adjustments make HFOV safer and more effective where it fits.

How to Display High-Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation Skills on Your Resume