UVM Health Network Scholarships Put Training for Well-paying RT Jobs
Within Reach of More Vermonters
Williston, Vt.— The University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN) and Vermont State University (VTSU) partnered last year to breathe new life into the state’s only Respiratory Therapy (RT) program—a program that continues to thrive and has once again added new students this year. Respiratory therapy is a key function of the medical field. RTs do everything from treating patients with asthma to providing life-saving procedures to patients suffering from acute respiratory distress due to injuries or illnesses like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or COVID. Yet, there are not enough RTs in Vermont to care for all who need them and, until last year, not enough programs to train them. The VTSU/UVMHN partnership provides students with free tuition and has a 100 percent job placement rate since 2020.
“At University of Vermont Health Network, it’s part of our mission to help solve our workforce challenges like the lack of trained RTs in Vermont and this partnership with Vermont State University is a great example of that commitment,” said Jerry Baake, network director, workforce development at UVMHN. “We begin by offering our employees the ability to train for needed jobs, but recently, we’ve taken it a step further by offering those same opportunities for non-employees. Our scholarship program for the Vermont State RT program applies to any Vermonter who would like to train to be an RT. We know that increasing the number of RTs available to all hospitals is good for all of us and for Vermont.”
“This is exactly the type of programming that sets VTSU apart as a creative problem-solver with our state’s most important employers,” related VTSU president David Bergh. “We need RTs across the entire health care system, and this program offers our students an affordable way to get the training they need to enter this rewarding and well-paying career field. So, ensuring we have programs needed to train these professionals is good for the state and really good for our students,” he explained.
Roxanne Garland is one of those students. A non-traditional student, Garland entered the program when her own children were teens.
“It was time for my second career to occur,” she said, adding that the UVMHN workforce development programs in general intrigued her. “I was going to pursue nursing, but I wanted to get started right away. I was encouraged to go to an RT informational session to learn how the program works. Respiratory therapists work collaboratively with nurses— but instead of being a little bit knowledgeable about a lot of things, RTs become real experts at the lungs,” she explained. “It felt good that I can be an expert on a team. Being of my age, the accelerated program fit my schedule and my goals.”
Garland is excelling thanks to the UVMHN/VTSU opportunity and is now in her second year.
While Garland is herself a non-traditional student training for a second career, she asserts that the RT program is a great way for younger individuals to forge a career, coming out of just a two-year program, and she recommends VTSU.
“There’s something to be said about our instructors,” she says. “They’re incredibly dedicated to the success of their students. I have tremendous regard and respect for them. I’ve enjoyed my time at VTSU and am glad to see that class of 2026 is even larger than our 8-person class.”
Respiratory therapists earn a median annual salary of $77,960, and jobs in the field are projected to grow by 13 percent between 2022 and 2032, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. VTSU has a 100 percent job placement in this program, with all respiratory therapy graduates from 2020 through 2023 employed within six months of graduating. Hospitals that hired the last class were—Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (a UVMHN facility in northern New York), North Country Hospital, Northern Vermont Regional Hospital, Rutland Regional Medical Center and University of Vermont Medical Center.
For information on the VTSU RT program, visit https://vermontstate.edu/academic-programs/respiratory-therapy-as/. The next cohort begins in Fall 2025.
