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Programs that provide treatment services for people who have breathing problems due to lung disease or injury. Therapy includes training in the use of special breathing equipment and/or techniques for administering prescription medication; retraining in new ways of breathing, walking and working to compensate for breathing problems and to enable the body to use oxygen more efficiently; development of hour-by-hour home care schedules as needed; and patient and family education regarding the problem and the rehabilitation plan.

Programs that evaluate, treat and care for patients who have breathing or other cardiopulmonary disorders including premature infants whose lungs are not fully developed, elderly people whose lungs are diseased, patients with chronic asthma or emphysema and patients who are victims of a heart attack, stroke, drowning or shock. Working under the supervision of a physician, respiratory therapists are responsible for measuring lung capacity and providing treatments and exercises that help to improve or restore lung function. Care may include the use of oxygen or oxygen mixtures, vaporized medications delivered by inhalation, chest physiotherapy which removes accumulations of mucus from the lungs and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, if required. Respiratory therapists may also connect patients who are unable to breathe on their own to a ventilator that delivers pressurized oxygen into the lungs and monitor ventilator settings that control the rate, volume, and oxygen concentration of the oxygen mixture.

Programs that provide instruction and/or care for people who, because of respiratory failure, are partially or totally dependent upon a mechanical respiratory device to sustain life.