ECC Respiratory Therapy Graduates Rise to Demands of COVID-19

Hailee Griffin, a May graduate of Edgecombe Community College’s Respiratory Therapy program, is a respiratory therapist at Nash General Hospital in Rocky Mount. She and her classmates have had to adjust to the challenges of helping patients with COVID-19.

When Hailee Griffin first reported to Nash General Hospital in May, she was working under a provisional license in an effort to get more respiratory therapy graduates in the field to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was like a ghost town,” Griffin says of the Rocky Mount hospital’s COVID-19 wing. “No family; no visitors; just the sound of ventilators.

“It was hard. I was a new respiratory therapist trying to learn how to treat patients and then trying to work through a pandemic. It was a little overwhelming.”

Griffin, 20, is one of eleven Edgecombe Community College graduates who completed the Respiratory Therapy program in May. But because the coronavirus swept the nation during their last semester, the rollercoaster ride for these eleven students was filled with fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

“At first, I was really scared that it would put us behind, and we might not graduate until next year,” says 26-year-old Casey DeBlaker. “But the opposite happened. It put everything on super speed.”

The COVID-19 virus affects the respiratory system, so respiratory therapists were in high demand when the pandemic started to sweep across the country last spring.

Tim King, program chair of ECC’s Respiratory Therapy program, describes the beginning of the pandemic as chaos. As quickly as he and other faculty made backup plans at the College, those plans had to be abandoned the next day.

“We had to accept that chaos was the norm,” he says. “We had to be flexible.”

The Respiratory Therapy program at ECC is a five-semester degree program. Respiratory therapists care for patients who have trouble breathing, for example, from a chronic respiratory disease, such as asthma or emphysema.

North Carolina’s respiratory therapy licensing board and the national accreditation organization both acted quickly, according to King. First, the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care lifted certain requirements for students. Next, the N.C. Respiratory Care Board allowed senior students to work immediately under provisional license prior to taking state exams.

“I did have some anxiety about not graduating,” says Cecelia Jenkins, 21. “But the instructors were very reassuring, and the state was very flexible.”

When Aliesha Keys went to work at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville as a respiratory care assistant, she called it going to “COVID war.” But the 33-year-old says she felt confident to do battle.

“We had great instructors who prepared us for this,” she says.

Jenkins, who works at Wake Med Hospital in Raleigh, also credits the College with preparing students to work on the pandemic front lines.

“I was expecting to be thrown into a raging fire,” Jenkins says, “but that didn’t happen. I felt prepared. I was just excited to be out working in my field.”

Michael Berrier, 46, already had been in the healthcare field for 25 years when he started navigating through the final stages of college with his fellow classmates. Because he was a flight medic, he already had plenty of experience dealing with injured and ailing patients.

“This is basically like dealing with any other isolation patient,” Berrier says. “The stakes may be higher, but this is who we went to college to be.”

King says that experience definitely helps in the fight against COVID-19, but inexperience in the healthcare industry for recent graduates could turn out to be a positive in the long run.

“These recent graduates are young in healthcare so their burnout threshold is higher,” he explains. “This is all they know right now.”

What began as a turbulent time for faculty and students in ECC’s Respiratory Therapy program has turned into a success story, King says.

“I’m proud to see our students move on and do great things, especially during a global pandemic,” he says.

Although the state gave the students an additional year to take and pass their state exams, the eleven members of the May graduating class took their tests over the summer. Ten of the eleven passed on their initial attempt, and they’re now working at various hospitals across North Carolina.

This story doesn’t end with these recent graduates. Current seniors in ECC’s Respiratory Therapy program are in their final year of coursework. King says these students are expected to finish on time and also will start working immediately.

“Hospitals need more well-trained practitioners,” King adds. “There is a high demand for our graduates.”