Respiratory therapy student recalls ‘inspiring’ clinical experience
Jerick Dela Cruz always knew he wanted a career in health care, but it wasn’t until he attended a student-hosted health-care panel in his first year that he considered respiratory therapy (RT).
“I saw opportunities that I didn’t know existed before,” said Dela Cruz, who was initially planning on studying dentistry. “Thankfully I already had some of the prerequisites.”
Dela Cruz, 20, is currently in his second year of the RT program at the College of Rehabilitation Sciences. Formerly a vice-president on the college’s student council, he also volunteers with CanU, a charitable organization based at UM that offers educational programming for youth in Grades 5-12.
Since November 2025, he has been working as an RT assistant at Children’s Hospital.
“Being able to work alongside respiratory therapists and see how they interact with patients gives me a deeper perspective on the profession,” he says.
We asked him about his journey to study respiratory therapy at UM, highlights so far and his future:
I knew I wanted to pursue a career in health care and I knew that I wanted to find my own niche. When I heard about RT, my mother, who is a nurse, was able to tell me more about what they do. They are kind of like the hospital’s firefighters who come to the rescue when things are looking down – especially with things like code blues, when patients go into cardiopulmonary arrest. What appealed to me was always being on the move and having a career with a lot of responsibility.
What surprised me about the profession is how highly interdisciplinary it is, with frequent collaboration alongside other health-care professionals and strong involvement in bedside patient care. It is a dynamic field that continues to evolve, with ongoing research and new approaches to practice.
I first learned about RT at the UM Undergraduate Leaders in Healthcare panel. This year, I was part of the panel. Representing RT and sharing the role with eager students who are looking for a career in health care was a full-circle moment for me.
On my first clinical rotation, I was thrown into the fire immediately. I was in the Women’s Hospital and within the first 15 minutes of me being there I was called into the operating room with my preceptor. We donned all our protective equipment and suddenly I was in the operating room for a c-section for twins.
Being able to see all these people from different health-care professions working so smoothly with one another – especially for the birth of twins – was a rare experience. I also saw the role of the respiratory therapist during the c-section. I never really understood up to that point how important our role is during the delivery of infants, on standby as they take their first breaths and transition from fetal to newborn circulation.
It was inspiring and reassured me that I had chosen the right profession.
I look forward to making the right decisions for my patients. As I mentioned, it’s an evolving profession and there’s no telling where our therapies will go. Advances in technology, such as mechanical ventilation, introduce new tools RTs can apply in different kinds of situations. It is then up to the RTs to investigate how these new tools affect patient care and where new methods of therapy can be introduced to the profession. Being a respiratory therapist is very involved in bedside clinical studies and research to advance evidence-based patient care.
I’m excited to be able to help with that progress in the future. Research is such an important part of RT and seeing how therapies can evolve makes me excited to join the workforce.
Learn more about UM's bachelor of respiratory therapy program.
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