For over two decades, the Virginia Society for Respiratory Care has sponsored the Mountain Air Symposium, held in Blacksburg. This year the Respiratory Care Class of 2008 (SwVCC campus) raised money to attend this symposium, returning with both 1st and 2nd place in the Clinical Practice Knowledge Competition for Students.
"The entire class has repeatedly demonstrated incredible thinking and solution-based skills and the closeness they share with each other have fostered their minds and hearts,” said Dr. Joe DiPietro, Program Director. “The five that won, represented our college campuses (Southwest Virginia Community College and Wytheville Community College) and our program's motto, Spiritus Vitae, Latin for 'the breath of life," with honor and distinction.
The five semester program in Cardiopulmonary Sciences (Respiratory Care and 12-lead EKG) is incredibly intense, requiring maturity, focus, commitment and desire to complete the 71 credit, program including 1,000 hours of clinical practice leading eventually to an AAS Degree, the Registered Respiratory Therapist Credential (RRT), and the
Respiratory Care Practitioner License to Practice.
"These five learners reminded us of preparation and wanting to learn," DiPietro said, "and their actions are not just praiseworthy, their actions drew us all even closer together."
For more information about Cardiopulmonary Sciences (Respiratory Care), call Dr. Joe DiPietro at Southwest, 276.964.7306, or email to: joe.dipietro@sw.edu .