PA College Magazine - Spring 2021 - 6

TEACHING
TEACHING
&& LEARNING
LEARNING

FACULTY PROFILE

Photo by Eric Forberger

Vital to the Health Care Team
By Joan Cramer
Growing up with allergies so severe
they often kept him out of school and
sporting events, Jim Christie, MPH,
RRT, always wanted to become a
respiratory therapist. " It doesn't get
much better than helping people to
breathe, " he says.
Now director of the PA College
Respiratory Care program, the Bucks
County native started working as a
respiratory therapist at Lancaster
General Hospital immediately after
graduating with a bachelor's in biology
from Millersville University in 2000.
" I love working with patients, and that
every day is different, " he says. " As I
tell my students, as a respiratory therapist
you can work in the trauma unit,
with cancer patients, kids, neonates,
preemies. I've done compressions on a
patient on the ER waiting room floor. "
But Christie also continued his
education, earning a master's in public
health from West Chester University
in 2006, and became an instructor at
the College in 2010. He is now working
on a PhD in higher education leadership.

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" Teaching is incredibly rewarding, "
he says, " both when your students
connect with what you're trying to
convey, and later, when they're out in
the world and they say, 'I love what
I do, and I love the foundation you
gave me.' "

I love working with patients, and
that every day is different. As I tell my
students, as a respiratory therapist you
can work in the trauma unit, with
cancer patients, kids, neonates,
preemies. I've done compressions on a
patient on the ER waiting room floor.
- Jim Christie

COVID-19, of course, changed
everything: quickly figuring out what
could be taught online and how to do
it, the frustration of not being able
to interact casually with students, and
the challenge of trying to physically
distance while demonstrating the
intricacies of a ventilator, for example.
But the pandemic also raised the visibility

of the profession and attracted new
applicants to the program. " Suddenly
people know we exist, that we're a vital
part of the health care team, " Christie says.
And he is gratified by how many
former students are working on the
front lines. " I know one who actually
volunteered to go to New York during
that first wave. It's incredible to see
them stepping into the unknown and
thriving, " says Christie.
Last year, Christie's program won the
Distinguished Registered Respiratory
Therapist Credentialing Success Award
from the Commission on Accreditation
for Respiratory Care.
" It was a team success - I work with
two extraordinary faculty members,
Janelle Hess and Joel Benner - and it
was a long time coming, " he says. " The
commission looks at three-year cycles
of statistics that measure the success
of our graduates, so it takes time to
become eligible and our program is
relatively young. But over the past 10
years we have figured out what works
and what doesn't, and this was an exciting
validation of what we are doing. " n
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PA College Magazine - Spring 2021

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