For patients who can't get enough oxygen on their own, you manage the therapy that helps them breathe, setting it up, monitoring response, and adjusting support. Care for people fighting for every breath.
Most of the work is hands-on patient care: setting up oxygen and respiratory equipment, administering treatments, monitoring how patients respond, and educating them and families. You work in hospitals, clinics, or homes, often with seriously ill patients, and changes in breathing demand quick response. Much of the craft is clinical precision paired with calm, steady reassurance.
What's demanding is the acuity and the emotional weight: you work with people who are scared and short of breath, sometimes at the end of life. Shifts can include nights, weekends, and on-call, and the documentation is real. Settings range from ICU to home care, each with its own intensity and pace to it.
It fits someone calm, clinically precise, and genuinely compassionate. If you want low-stakes routine or struggle with seriously ill patients, the intensity can wear. But if you find meaning in helping someone breathe easier, and the mix of technical skill and patient care, the work tends to give that back, patient by patient.
Don't do Truest if you aren't ready
to invest in yourself and your career.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Don't know if you want to stay in your job?
Get your career on record. Then decide.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Healthcare roles →For patients who can't get enough oxygen on their own, you manage the therapy that helps them breathe, setting it up, monitoring response, and adjusting support. Care for people fighting for every breath.
Median pay for an Oxygen Therapist is about $80K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $62K to $109K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Monitoring, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Speaking, and Social Perceptiveness.
Most people in this role hold a postsecondary certificate.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 12.1% through 2034, with roughly 136,420 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include NICU Respiratory Therapist (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Respiratory Therapist), Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Respiratory Therapist, and Respiratory Therapist (RT).
Do one small thing to grow in your career this week. Pick one of these; each comes with the words to use.
More career advice
We believe careers grow through small steps taken often, more than big leaps. So we’ve collected hundreds of them for you to try.
Browse career adviceDon't know if you want to stay in your job?
Get your career on record. Then decide.