Is the respiratory physiologist qualification recognized in countries where...?

Do not assume any health professions qualification will be recognised in any other country. Healthcare professions are jurisdictional and the qualifying programmes are normally designed to meet the legal and professional needs/requirements of the country you are studying in.

When it comes to healthcare professions, study (and hence qualify) where you want to work.

I know...

I even emailed the Association for Respiratory Physiology about this a few days ago and they haven't gotten back to me yet even though it's them who are supposed to help us with this query...

Quite late to this, but I used to work with a US or Canadian-trained RT (can't remember which country) and I later worked as a trainee respiratory physiologist myself for a few years, bit this was 15 years ago so my info may be out of date.

Essentially an RT can perform respiratory testing, as well as nebuliser administration, some pulmonary rehab, and in certain US jurisdictions even intubated patients. The UK Resp Physiologist role obviously doesn't cover the therapy aspects, so in US at least (from my dated knowledge) the UK role would be more akin to a Resp Twchnician, as you're purely diagnostic.

Sorry I didn't ask this when you posted but it slipped my mind.
This is the description, from the Association of Respiratory Physiology website, of what the job entails:

'Respiratory Physiologists work directly with patients to deliver diagnostic tests of breathing and treatment for lung disease. They are usually involved in exercise testing, sleep studies and delivery of ventilation to patients on the wards and at home.'

Considering the two bits that I've highlighted, does that mean that the respiratory physiologist's scope of practice has expanded in the 15 years since you've done the job?

It may have changed as its been quite some time, but as far as I'm aware they don't do much in the way of treatment. I'd assume by treatment they mean performing LTOTs (long term oxygen therapy assessments) and using reversibility testing (administering salbutamol) to determine if a bronchodilator drug would usefully improve lung function. They may be more involved in the BiPAP/CPAP at home services which might be covered by treatment also.

I'd suggest looking at the NHS Health Careers website, and the ARTP (professional association) websites

According to the NHS Health Careers website: 'You might also help patients in the delivery of their long-term treatment and care, such as oxygen, ventilation or their medication.'
What do you think?

Help is very ambiguous, it could just mean testing the impact of treatment, advising on oxygen therapy, etc. Essentially, the UK doesn't have an RT role, so you really need to decide if you want to go down the diagnostic route (physiologist) or a career more involved with treatment (e.g. physiotherapist, respiratory nurse specialist, etc.)

To me the two roles, RP and RT, seem almost identical except for the fact that RTs also do a bit of physiotherapy....or am I wrong?

I also wanted to ask if this job is very repeptitive....I sometimes get the impression that it mostly entails 3-4 frequent tests while all the other tasks in the job description (sleep studies, CPAP, delivery of ventilation to patients on the wards and at home) you only get to do once in a blue moon.

Sorry for all the questions but you're the only person I've managed to find that is knowledgeable about this profession.... .

They're not identical, as they generally exist in different countries with different scopes of practice. RP is mostly diagnostic, RT includes some diagnostic but has a MUCH wider scope for treatment and intervention (the RT therapies are spread across different professions in the UK). My mate who is a Chief Respiratory Physiologist actually worked in the USA for a while and said essentially they worked as a Resp Technician (testing only) as the UK role isn't considered broad enough to cover the therapy side, whilst the RT I worked with who returned to the UK couldn't work as an RP as the lacked the wide diagnostic scope- they're different but related jobs, and so not directly comparable

The job is very repetitive, most of your job will be standard lung function testing (spirometry, lung volumes, gas transfer, and reversibility if needed) with fewer tests done for things like LTOTs, bronchoprovocation studies, fitness to fly, etc. It really depends on the hospital you work at, and the size of the department. Most RP departments are small, so you'd cover most things with few opportunities to focus just on a speciality. There are roles where you would mostly do sleep studies but they'd be based at larger facilities. Respiratory has always had issues recruiting compared to the "sexier" disciplines of neuro or cardiac, which is why you'll still find some roles advertised as cardio-respiratory (cardiac physiologists also trained to perform some basic Respiratory tests).

Bearing all that in mind, it is an interesting role, and you'll often move to band 6 quickly after qualification due to recruitment and retention issues, and you'll have a degree of independence in how you manage your patient lists.

No worries about asking questions, it's still a small and unfortunately often undervalued and less visible NHS role

Actually there are probably a decent amount of locum jobs, as it's a needed job, just not one that is particularly well staffed. I knew someone who did locum resp jobs, few months here and there, but it was quite a while ago.

Generally, locum shifts will be for X weeks or months at one site, before moving onto another. I had a friend who did some locum RP work, and that was the general pattern for them. It's highly unlikely that you would be able to switch between sites in one week. Also, not every hospital will use the same equipment e.g. you may have been trained on one type of body pethysmography machine, but some of your sites may use different ones, so you'd be less familiar with their setups and interfaces. Certain hospitals may be willing to spend a bit of time familiarising you with their equipment, but not if you're going to hop to a new site a few days later.

As for numbers, I genuinely have no idea, but most medium to large hospitals would be expected to have some form of Respiratory testing, even if its just basic lung function testing for pre-op.

Honestly, if you are looking for a job with lots of variety and the ability to do different locum shifts each week, then clinical Physiology (in any branch) is probably not the best match for you, and something like nursing or possibly physiotherapy in larger cities would be better suited for that

There can be, to cover annual or maternity leave, but as most RP work is Monday-Friday, locum work is usually covering a shortage of recruited staff, and doesn't fit well if you already have a full-time RP job. So you'll either be doing just locum work, or working locum on your own leave days to boost your salary. Some sleep studies units may work over the weekend and so potentially provide more locum work for a full-time RP, but its not anywhere near the same as nursing agencies who, due to their shift systems, have weekends and sometimes weekdays free to work nursing shifts.

Yes I would be interested in doing only part time locum work (I should have specified); no more than 24 hours a week. Any chance you can ask one of your friends that have done locum RP work about this and get back to me on this thread or through PM?

Honestly, the type of locum work you seem interested is likely not realistic. My friend who used to do wholly locum work has been permanent staff for a long time now, no one I'm aware of does full time locum work for more than a fee months, its normally just used as a stop gap to permanent posts, or to try put potential permanent employers. Cardiac might have more experience of weekend locum work (e.g. doing echocardiograms), but I don't really know anyone in cardiac. Like i said, respiratory isnt a good choice for flexible locum work

If you only wish to work part-time, you could just take a permanent part-time contract?