INHALATION THERAPY TECHNICIANS SCHOOL

INHALATION THERAPY Medical training offered for the first time in the State of Iowa by MERCY HEALTH CENTER in 1970. Inhalation therapy is the treatment of a disease or infection through the breathing of special gases or oxygen combined with medication that would normally be given intravenously. (1)

Inhalation therapy found use where patients tended to breath weakly or where infection created barriers. In such cases treated gases or oxygen could quickly and easily reach the infected areas. Inhalation therapy began after WORLD WAR II but did not gain widespread acceptance unti1 1965. (2)

On January 1, 1970 XAVIER HOSPITAL offered an Inhalation Therapy Department. The service had been offered for several years as part of the Anesthesia Department. The director of the department was Sister Monica McMahon OSF, a graduate of the St. Francis Hospital School of Inhalation Therapy in Wichita, Kansas. (3)

In 1970 Mercy employed three of the estimated ten inhalation therapists in the state. The first class, relatively rare even in the United States, in the Inhalation Therapy Technicians School was offered by Mercy in March of 1970 for five students. The twelve-month program including both classroom and clinical experience was offered to high school graduates and others. (4)

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Source:

1. "Inhalation Therapy School," Telegraph Herald, January 1, 1970, p. 7

2. Ibid.

3. "New Department," Telegraph Herald, January 2, 1970, p. 5 Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=aEyKTaVlRPYC&dat=19700102&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

4. "Inhalation Therapy School"