Student Experience: Lupe Ortiz, RRT, NPS

My name is Lupe Ortiz and I am a respiratory therapist. I knew I wanted to go to a field in the medical field. I just wasn't sure what. And I was working in the non-emergency side of the emergency room in a local pediatric hospital. And it just so happened that my team leader was aware of that and she introduced me to a respiratory therapist that worked in the ER.

And then so I went and met with him. And he just kind of explained to me, you know, what the role was for respiratory therapy.  You know, on down times for what I was doing and as far as what he was doing.

He just kind of let me come over and hang out and just kind of explained to me you know, what the process was you know, school and kind of what the work, you know, entailed. And, and the more I did that, the more I started liking it. And so, I just kind of pursued it and just kind of took it from there.

I chose El Centro one, it was closer to home. It was honestly, it was a little more affordable than going to somewhere out of state or somewhere else.  Just those two things were, were the main thing, the reason why I chose to go to El Centro.

I think El Centro did an excellent job of preparing me for going into the workforce. We all still got to do clinicals and so one of the clinicals that we did happened to be at one of the hospitals that I started working. So it kind of, made a little bit easier to kind of transition into there. 

But I think they did an excellent job. I felt prepared. I'd have to say, three professors stand out that each one had a particular course that they specialized in. And I think that I just took a little bit from each one that just kind of helped me move into that direction.

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