Respiratory therapy personal statement example

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

I first paid proper attention to breathing when a college physiology lesson covered gas exchange and I realised I already knew the feeling being described. I have mild exercise-induced asthma, and the diagram of narrowed airways explained something I had spent years just putting up with during netball. What interested me was not the diagnosis but the measurement: the idea that something as private as breathlessness can be turned into numbers, compared over time, and used to change treatment. Respiratory therapy appeals to me because it sits exactly there, between physics and the patient. Oxygen delivery, ventilator settings, humidification, lung function testing and airway clearance are all technical problems, but they are solved at the bedside with someone who is frightened and short of breath. I want a career where I have to be accurate about pressures and volumes and also calm enough to talk a person through a nebuliser they do not want. Reading around the subject has shown me how broad the field is, from neonatal care to pulmonary rehabilitation and long-term ventilation at home. Chronic respiratory disease is one of the commonest reasons people are admitted to hospital in the UK, and I find it genuinely interesting that good management is often about education, technique and timing rather than new drugs. Teaching someone to use an inhaler properly is unglamorous and makes a measurable difference. That combination of practical skill, physiological reasoning and patient contact is what I want from a degree and from the work that follows it.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare?

My A levels in Biology, Chemistry and PE have given me useful preparation. Biology introduced ventilation, gas transport and the oxygen dissociation curve, and I went beyond the specification to understand why the curve shifts with carbon dioxide and pH, because it kept appearing in the reading I was doing about oxygen therapy. Chemistry has been the harder subject for me, but it has taught me to handle gas laws, partial pressures and buffer systems, and to be careful with units and calculations. I now treat a wrongly copied figure as a serious error rather than an untidy one. PE has been surprisingly relevant: we studied respiratory response to exercise, VO2 measurement and the effects of altitude, and I gave a presentation on why breathing rate and depth do not increase in the same proportion during heavy work. Coursework in Biology required me to design a controlled investigation and write up limitations honestly, which was good practice in admitting what my data could not show. Alongside my A levels I completed a free online course on the structure of the respiratory system and borrowed an anatomy textbook from the college library, working through the chapters on the thoracic wall and the muscles of respiration and drawing them repeatedly until I could label them unprompted. I have also built up my note-taking and revision routines over two years, which matters because I know a health degree involves placements, essays and exams running at the same time.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

Formal work experience in a respiratory department was not something I could arrange near home, so I made my own project. I bought a low-cost peak flow meter and, with permission from my netball coach and the players' parents, recorded readings from six volunteers before and after a structured warm-up over four weeks, alongside my own. I kept a simple spreadsheet, plotted the results and learned quickly how much technique affects the numbers: an incomplete breath or a poor seal produced a reading that meant nothing. I wrote up a short account of what I found, including the obvious weaknesses in it, such as my tiny sample and the lack of control over the weather or how hard people had trained the day before. It taught me more about reproducibility than any lesson had. I also volunteer fortnightly with a community walking group that includes several people with COPD. I mostly carry water, hold gates and keep the back of the group company, but I have watched how people pace themselves, use pursed-lip breathing on hills and decide when to stop, and I have learned to walk alongside someone who is breathless without filling the silence. Saturdays I work in a bakery, serving customers and handling the till from opening. It has made me quicker at dealing with people who are in a hurry or unhappy, and reliable about turning up at six in the morning. Coaching a junior netball team has been the best preparation for explaining things: I have had to break a skill into steps, repeat it without sounding impatient and notice which children were pretending to understand. I think that will transfer to teaching inhaler technique. I also completed a basic first aid course through college, which covered recognising difficulty in breathing and the recovery position, and I am used to fitting study around shifts and commitments.

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