Casper College respiratory program receives ‘Cutting Edge’ grant

The Casper College Respiratory program was recently awarded a Career and Technical Education “Cutting Edge” grant by the Wyoming Department of Education.

The grant, totaling $15,410, was awarded to the respiratory therapy program to create hybrid student lab kits. “This project is intended to provide smaller, portable supplies to hybrid students in the respiratory therapy program, said Tiffany Scott, respiratory therapy instructor. According to Scott, during the COVID pandemic, some of the program’s students were unable to complete their clinical rotations while hospitals were on lockdown.

Working with the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care, the body that provides accreditation for the Casper College program, former Respiratory Therapy Director Doug Neubert created a “… hybrid program to allow students from rural areas to partner with hospitals and Casper College to put more respiratory therapists in the workforce,” Scott said. “As time went on, it came to our attention that students in these rural areas did not have access to all the supplies that the traditional students had. Their sponsoring hospitals either did not keep enough stock to allow for students’ use, or they simply did not have the supplies in general,” Scott noted.

Because students needed supplies to complete their clinicals, the “Hybrid Student Lab Kits” project was born. “Each semester, students will receive a ‘lab kit’ of the supplies that we regularly practice with in our lab class, giving them hands-on learning opportunities not previously available due to the lack of supplies,” said Scott. These kits should significantly boost student engagement and motivation and prepare students for the different modalities they may encounter in the workforce after graduation, according to Scott.

“Providing the lab kits will help foster an equitable learning opportunity for both hybrid and traditional students. This is a key factor in respiratory education and accreditation,” Scott added.

Along with the kits, the grant money will also be used to purchase Apple iPads, iPad keyboards, and iPad pencils. “The Apple products will be used to enhance the delivery of information to hybrid students. These products will allow for superior presentation when compared to the current model of video chatting hybrid students experience through the classroom projector,” said Scott.