Post 1 Sleep medicine is very interesting, it’s great that I had a chance to lea

Post 1
Sleep medicine is very interesting, it’s great that I had a chance to learn about other possible job opportunities in our field. I also find it exciting that this field is continuing to grow with technology and the capabilities will only keep improving along with the quality of home sleep studies as the years go by. The thing I found most interesting about this course were how many different types of sleep disorders there are. It was interesting to have a better understanding of them and have them categorized as a sleep illness with better definition. Also, how these disease processes are diagnosed by a PSG. The complexities in reading a polysomnography itself also was very intriguing. I did not realize the many monitoring systems that are required to assess change in sleep disorders, in particular sleep related breathing disorders.
If I were to choose what type of sleep technologist I would prefer to be, I would probably choose to be a night sleep tech. I think what guides me more towards my scope of practice in respiratory is that I would be titrating CPAP and transitioning to various modes during a PAP titration study. As a respiratory therapist, I really enjoy being at the bedside, with all the ventilator details that create a cause and effect relation in improving my patients. At least as a night time sleep tech I would be doing something similar to an extent.
Post 2
The most interesting part of this course for me was watching a demonstration of the placement of the electrodes and sensors onto a patient’s head. The precise measurements and accuracy in which the electrodes must be placed seemed tedious at first but it becomes easier with experience. I realized how important it is to get it right the first time because it reduces the chance of needing to disturb the patient’s sleep to fix a piece of equipment. It was also interesting to learn that during a sleep study, one sleep tech monitors one or two patients instead of letting them sleep and collecting results in the morning. If presented the opportunity, I would choose to be a night sleep tech because it seems that the field requires a constant need to broaden the skill set and education related to sleep medicine and the respiratory system. “In order to maintain viability as an allied health profession, the majority of sleep technologists will need to be better educated and demonstrate competency in more roles than overnight monitoring and record scoring” (Brooks, 2014). This role has its challenges and additional opportunities to become new roles. The knowledge of sleep medicine and ability to troubleshoot sleep equipment presents sleep techs freedom to expand into further diagnostic testing and long term care.
Brooks, R., & Trimble, M. (2014, May). The Future of Sleep Technology: Report from an American Association of Sleep Technologists Summit Meeting. Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Retrieved December 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4013389/