By MARGIE TRAX PAGE - Staff Writer - mtrax@starbeacon.com
ASHTABULA — David Goswick works to help the world breathe a little more easily.
As director of the respiratory therapy technology program at Kent State University-Ashtabula, Goswick is sitting in his new office at the Robert S. Morrison Health and Science Building and is looking ahead to his first class in 2010.
“Respiratory therapy is booming,” Goswick said. “There are a lot of job opportunities out there, and this is a wonderful program.”
Goswick said the respiratory therapy technology program will take on 20 students in January for the two-year program associate’s degree and 20 students each year after that.
“We will be accredited in eight to 10 weeks,” he said. “And we are also developing a bachelor’s degree program.”
Goswick said the program will offer students real-hospital scenarios in a realistic setting.
“Here, the labs look and feel like a real hospital,” he said. “We are mimicking here what the students would be doing in the hospital, from the beds to the monitoring equipment to the patient simulator. There is nothing that you are going to see here that you won’t see there.”
The Robert Morrison Health and Science Building is the only place Kent State students can take respiratory therapy classes, as the Ashtabula campus is the first KSU campus to offer the degree, Goswick said.
“Everyone is really excited about this opportunity,” he said.
For more information about the KSUA respiratory therapy technology program, visit www.ashtabula.kent.edu or call (440) 964-3322.
