Laredo (March 28, 2007) – Laredo and South Texas students interested in becoming respiratory therapists and applying to study at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio’s Laredo Campus Extension are invited to an upcoming Respiratory Care Open House. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held between 3:30 and 5 p.m. Thursday, March 29, in the auditorium at the Laredo Campus Extension, 1937 Bustamante.
Students, counselors and parents will learn about the profession of respiratory care, prerequisite course and admission requirements, and the application procedure. Health Science Center respiratory care faculty members will describe the various settings in which respiratory therapists work and will offer hands-on demonstrations of equipment used in respiratory care. Refreshments will be provided.
For more information, call Adriana Guerra, Laredo program coordinator, at (956) 523-7410 or the department of respiratory care at (210) 567-8850. Interested individuals may also visit www.uthscsa.edu/respiratorycare.
The department of respiratory care in the Health Science Center’s School of Allied Health Sciences offers one of the highest ranked respiratory care degree programs in the country, according to a recent survey in the field. The program expanded to a loaned space at Texas A&M International University in August 2001 and to the newly constructed Laredo Campus Extension in January 2003 to meet the critical demand for respiratory therapists in Laredo and the region.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $536 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $14.3 billion biosciences and health care industry, the leading sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 22,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and allied health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, allied health, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, click onwww.uthscsa.edu.