Sputum Bowl in Las Vegas highlights world’s largest respiratory care gathering

The Nevada Sputum Bowlers could have had back-to-back championships, but they just couldn’t savor the sweet taste of victory.

The students from the Las Vegas campus of the Pima Medical Institute weren’t fast enough to their buzzer and were eliminated in the second day of the competition, a trivia game with questions pertaining to respiratory care.

“This is hard,” said Anthony Everidge, program director for the school on East Flamingo Road, winner of the 2013 Sputum Bowl. “Some of these questions are on a higher scientific plane.”

Everidge and his charges, Christopher Andresky, Vannesa Mower and Erin Smith, had to settle for watching the finals last week with the other professionals and students gathered for the AARC Congress’ main event. The American Association for Respiratory Care’s annual gathering is the largest respiratory care meeting in the world at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

The event brought together pulmonologists, respiratory therapists and clinical managers to see the latest advancements in technology, review the newest research and hear programs in all areas of treatment, including neonatal and pediatric care, rehabilitation, diagnostics, home care and interventions for sleep disorders.

Continuing education included a review of the science behind the use of oxygen therapy for patients with chronic lung diseases.

When someone is gasping for air, minutes can feel like hours. In those times of despair, a respiratory therapist’s training in airway management, resuscitation and mechanical ventilation is vital. Presentations ranged from patient safety and clinical practice to more advanced topics addressing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a technique used in life-threatening heart and lung failure.

Steven Blanco, 25, and Nahom Asfaha, 31, respiratory therapy students from Las Vegas’ Carrington College, at the intersection of Eastern Avenue and Russell Road, said the presentations helped reinforce the lessons they’ve learned in classes and clinicals about medications for asthma and pediatric care in acute lung injury.

“This is the equipment we’re going to be using when we start working,” Blanco said in the exhibition area with displays promoting tracheotomy tubes, resuscitation masks and continuous positive airway pressure therapy, commonly called CPAP.

An exhibit with the Puritan Bennett 980 ventilator caught the eye of Michele Bertolino, a clinical supervisor at Phelps Memorial Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. Her hospital just purchased one of the machines that allow compromised patients to breathe.

“You’re always looking for something new,” said Bertolino, who has been in respiratory care for 40 years. “Some of the things, like the Covidien, we’re actually using now. There’s always new ways and products to make patients’ lives better.”

Dr. Javiar Antonio Ramirez Acosta, medical director of the Angeles Acoxpa Hospital in Mexico City, also was focused on outcomes.

“We are trying to obtain more safety (interventions) for the patients, especially for surgical patients,” the pulmonologist/anesthesiologist said.

The highlight of the event is called the Sputum Bowl, but like all aspects of health care, the program is designed to keep nausea at a manageable level.

No specimens are involved. Competitors could benefit from having a favorite stage of the Krebs cycle and hoping such a question gets asked.

“Sometimes it can make you think about all you’ve forgotten,” said Jereldine Boyl, a 28-year respiratory therapy veteran who works at Eisenhower Medical Center in Palm Springs, Calif. “The profession has changed a lot, but you still have to be grounded in the basics.”

Question: “What are two complications associated with hyperoxemia of the newborn?” Answer: “Oxygen toxicity and retinopathy of prematurity.”

For those not versed in respiratory care, hyperoxemia — increased oxygen content in the blood — can occur during interventions on newborns to help them breath or stimulate their heart rate. Hyperoxemia also can occur in any premature infant.

As the retinas of premature newborns develop, high concentrations of oxygen produce an overgrowth of retinal blood vessels and can lead to blindness. To prevent the condition, oxygen must be administered in as low a concentration and for as short a time as feasible. Careful assessment is essential because there always is a risk when oxygen is used with premature newborns.

Smith, one of the Las Vegas Pima Medical Institute students and a 21-year-old Coronado High School graduate who’s weeks away from graduation, said she was disappointed her team couldn’t follow the success of last year’s team.

But she said she relished the opportunity she had to compete against her peers from across the country.

Pima, with 13 campuses in seven Western states, retained the Sputum Bowl in the end when a team from a Pima campus in Denver emerged victorious. One benefit of the competitions is the preparation the team members get in advance of the tests they must pass to become credentialed through the National Board of Respiratory Care.

Smith said Pima’s program, with scores of hours of clinicals at Sunrise and Spring Valley hospitals and University Medical Center, has prepared her for that first job.

“I’ve made lots of connections at the clinical sites,” Smith said. “Managers have told me to come look them up after I graduate.”

Contact Steven Moore at smoore@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563.