In opinions of people from/ related to the fields, which would you prefer? Respiratory Therapy, or nursing?

Im trying to decide between the 2...which has more patient contact (assuming nurse), which has more responsibilty of the patient, which offers better hours/ shifts, etc? I've very interested in the variety a nursing degree can offer, but think i would like working as a respiratory specialist as well...ANY info that can be provided, especially comparing/ contrasting would be great.... Im pretty good at science/ being social, but not good at math, if it matters. =)

I answered for you before, I'm an rt. We both have as much patient contact. RT's have more patients then nurses because typically we don't spend as much time with them. We are only responsible for administering a couple of meds when a nurse may give 10 or more. Ultimately an rn has more responsibility but rt's have a lot and are held accountable by the hospital and the law. The hours depends on what hospital you work for. Some places only do 8 hour shifts which really suck because it's never 5 days in a row. I will only work for a place that offers 12 hour shifts because you do 3 per week to be considered full time. Night shift is usually 7pm - 7:30am and day shift 7am - 7:30 pm. The same goes for nurses in hospitals but it does matter what unit you work on what time you work. As far as math is concerned you have to learn how to calculate drug dosages and understand volumes and breaths per minute in both fields. Math is important but don't be too discouraged it's not calculus and the math you'll do in college for your program is much more then you'll do in the real world. We can use calculators it's just a matter of understanding what you are doing. Actually, I couldn't use a calculator on the board exams. I didn't need it though because I had studied the equations so much before the exams. There were only a couple math questions. I see you are pretty serious about these 2 careers you should call a resp department at a big hospital and ask if you could job shadow for a few hours and really see what we do. That's what I did while in college because I had no idea what resp really was. You can also do the same for nursing. Good luck, I'll answer any more questions you have.

If you have a family I would pick Respiratory Therapy. More likely to have weekends and holidays off. More quality family time that way. That is very important to me.