Health Sciences (Respiratory Therapy) (BHSc)

Your letter must address each of the following questions:

• Why did you choose this professional discipline as your area of study?
• What qualities, skills, and assets make you a good candidate for this profession?
• What is your understanding of the duties and responsibilities of a person working in this profession?
• How did you research this field before making your choice?

Please use the following instructions when drafting your letter:

• Answer questions in paragraph form.
• Organize your letter clearly and concisely, and demonstrate proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Limit your answers to 250 words per question.

Applicants will be assessed on the following non-academic criteria:

• Demonstrated knowledge of the selected health profession
• Leadership
• Community involvement
• Teamwork

If you're applying to more than one professional discipline within the Bachelor of Health Science program, please write a separate letter for each discipline.

Submit a copy of your resume outlining your education, work, and volunteer experiences. Please include the names, addresses, and phone numbers of two references.

Before applying to this program, it’s important to understand the intellectual, physical and mental demands of a career in respiratory therapy. These include:

• Working long shifts covering several areas throughout the hospital.
• Being on your feet for extended periods of time.
• Lifting and transporting patients to various sites in the hospital while maintaining ventilation with manual equipment.
• Cleaning and moving ventilators from one area of the hospital to other areas on a regular basis.
• Transporting specialty gas cylinders from one area of the hospital to another.
• Using physical strength and dexterity to attach metering devices to gas cylinders with a wrench.
• Manipulating artificial airway equipment, needles for arterial puncture and application of certain types of oxygen equipment.
• Ability to hear equipment alarms from a distance and distinguish subtle changes in air entry and breath sounds in the lungs and airways.
• Patients are often observed from a distance and heart monitors must be accurately read from at least the end of the patient’s bed, approximately six feet away.
• Exposure to Latex gloves, cleaning chemicals, and biological or chemical hazardous materials.
• Capacity to work in high pressure and emergency situations.

For more information please visit our Health Sciences non-academic requirements page.

If you have any questions or concerns about these requirements, please contact the School of Health Sciences at [email protected].