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September 10, 2025
Every year, medical staffing becomes a more complex task.
Increasing demand and need for specialized medical staff in the marketplace, combined with a worrying number of professionals choosing to leave the medical industry, has left many centers with staffing shortages.
In turn, short staffed medical practices are a high-stress environment for remaining workers, which can often drive even higher turnover rates.
Medical staffing has never been more complex or more needed.
Fortunately, there are factors that are helping to make dedicated professionals much more able to change career paths with a minimum of time and effort. Among these are online degrees and certifications.
As an example, respiratory therapy programs are able to give a bachelor’s degree and certification in as little as thirteen months. For medical staffing agencies, this means that they have an option to offer potential job seekers who are open to a new direction in their career path, into a high demand field that is useful in a variety of contexts.
Since diseases like COVID-19 have been taxing the healthcare system in recent years, there is at least one obvious reason why hospitals, long-term care facilities, and in-home care practices are seeking respiratory therapists.
A good respiratory therapist can pinpoint problems with a patient’s respiration. They are valuable in both acute situations when a coding patient needs a respirator, and in chronic circumstances when difficulty breathing is taxing a patient’s energy and wellbeing and making them more vulnerable to heart problems.
Respiratory therapists can have a variety of specialities. They are needed in every NICU to help ensure that premature and sick neonates can get adequate oxygen. Emergency rooms and operating rooms have to have a respiratory therapist for everything from routine same-day surgery to anaphylaxis from a bee sting.
They can also be critical for rehabilitation from a disease, injury or medical event, helping patients to regain full function by ensuring that they are able to breathe comfortably despite whatever injury has impacted their lungs, ribs or musculature. Their services are critical for care after a debilitating stroke or a car accident.
Cancer care, chronic lung conditions, and sleep specialists also need respiratory therapists on hand.
Respiratory therapists are in high demand in a wide variety of practices. How does this information help medical staffing agencies, and how can respiratory therapy programs help?
A medical professional who can fulfil multiple roles in multiple practices is a medical staffing agency’s dream.
Some of these contexts, such as an emergency room or NICU, may need full-time respiratory therapists on staff because they need to have one available at all times. Other of these positions, however, need only be filled one or two days a week. When respiratory therapists are part of a rehabilitation practice, for example, they may only be needed a couple of days a week.
The more certified respiratory therapists available to a medical staffing agency, the better able they are to meet their goals of keeping all of their clients fully staffed. When students who perhaps started their medical career with a different speciality obtain their respiratory therapy certification, that individual gain a lot of added value in the job market.
Suddenly, the number of roles they can fill increases substantially, and a medical staffing agency will see that as a big win–particularly if they are already known as a reliable employee and compassionate caregiver.
Counselors at respiratory therapy programs need to have contact information for multiple medical staffing agencies.
It’s also wise for medical staffing agencies to keep in touch with the same guidance counsellors so they know how many respiratory therapists may be graduating in the near future.
When you combine these strategic moves, you see how the more aggressive staffing agency can quickly hire new local graduates before they need to do any job hunting at all.
And when a medical staffing company has some workers that are harder to place because the career in which they are certified is either saturated with workers or being phased out of the industry, it is very helpful for these recruiters to be able to point these individuals to a distance learning respiratory therapy program.
This can take a professional who is struggling to get enough work and turn them into someone who is in high demand and meeting vital needs–all in as little as thirteen months.
The demand is growing because respiratory therapists are essential in a wide variety of medical situations. Their skills are critical in acute care settings like ERs and NICUs, as well as for managing chronic conditions, cancer care, and rehabilitation after injuries or strokes.
Gaining this certification makes you far more versatile and valuable in the job market. It opens up a significant number of roles you can fill, making you a prime candidate for medical staffing agencies looking to place professionals in high-demand positions.
These programs create a consistent supply of certified professionals for a field with staff shortages. For an agency like Beacon Inside, this means more qualified candidates to place, helping to keep client facilities fully staffed and operational.
You should proactively build relationships with the guidance counsellors at respiratory therapy programs. By staying in touch, you can learn about upcoming graduates and recruit them directly, often before they even begin their job search.
Yes, absolutely. If you have reliable staff members who are in a field with low demand, you can guide them towards a distance learning respiratory therapy program. This helps them transform into a high-demand professional, which is a win for both the employee and your agency.
