TL;DR: BS Respiratory Therapy is a four-year degree under CHED Memorandum Order No. 53, series of 2017. Both semesters of the fourth year are a 1,600-hour clinical internship in a CHED-DOH accredited training respiratory laboratory. Yes, there is a PRC board exam: Republic Act No. 10024, the Philippine Respiratory Therapy Act of 2009, created a Professional Regulatory Board of Respiratory Therapy, set nine examination subjects, and requires a 75% general average with no grade below 60%.
Respiratory therapy is one of the smaller Philippine health programmes, and one of the most misunderstood. People assume it is a nursing specialisation or a hospital technician role. It is neither. It is a distinct, licensed profession with its own statute, its own PRC board, and a curriculum built almost entirely around the cardiopulmonary system.
If you are trying to work out whether the course leads to a licence — the question most prospective students are actually asking — the answer is yes, and it has since 2013.
What Governs BS Respiratory Therapy
The programme runs under CHED Memorandum Order No. 53, series of 2017, "Revised Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Bachelor of Science in Respiratory Therapy (BSRT)," adopted by virtue of Commission en Banc Resolution No. 231-2017 dated 28 March 2017.
CMO 53 describes BSRT as "a four-year program consisting of general health education and professional courses." Like other outcomes-based CHED orders, it prescribes minimum outcomes and minimum requirements rather than a rigid national syllabus, so schools have room to design their own courses provided the floors are met.
The law behind the profession itself is Republic Act No. 10024, the Philippine Respiratory Therapy Act of 2009 (approved 9 March 2010). It defines respiratory therapy as "an allied health specialty employed with medical direction in the treatment, management, control, diagnostic evaluation and care of patients with deficiencies and abnormalities in the cardiopulmonary system."
What the Curriculum Covers
CMO 53 prescribes a set of respiratory therapy courses as minimum requirements. The named courses in the order's sample curriculum give a fair picture of what the degree is:
- Cardio-Respiratory Anatomy and Physiology
- Health Education for RT
- Microbiology for RT
- Fundamentals of Respiratory Therapy I and II
- Cardio-Respiratory Pharmacology
- Management and Health Care Ethics
- Neuro Anatomy and Pathophysiology
- Patient Assessment and ECG
- Cardio-pulmonary Pathology
- Airway Management
- Introduction to Polysomnography
- Pulmonary Rehabilitation
- Ventilation and Gas Exchange Monitoring
- Test of Pulmonary Function
- Pulmonary Disease Management
- Neonatal Respiratory Care
Alongside these sit the standard general education courses — Purposive Communication, The Contemporary World, Art Appreciation, Mathematics in the Modern World, Science Technology and Society, plus electives — and foundational health courses including Human Anatomy and Physiology, Medical Terminology and Biostatistics.
Notice how narrow and deep that list is compared with a general nursing or medical technology curriculum. Almost every professional course is about one organ system. That is the trade-off of the degree: strong specialised competence, a smaller range of employers.
The Fourth Year Is a 1,600-Hour Internship
This is the structural fact worth knowing before you enrol. Under CMO 53, the first and second semesters of the fourth year level are a 1,600-hour clinical internship programme in a CHED-DOH accredited training respiratory laboratory, with rotational duties in different sections of one or more hospitals.
The order names the rotations expected:
| Rotation | What it exposes you to |
|---|---|
| Pulmonary Diagnostics | Pulmonary function testing and diagnostic procedures |
| General Respiratory Care | Ward-level oxygen therapy, airway clearance, bronchopulmonary hygiene |
| Adult Intensive Care Unit | Mechanical ventilation and critical care management |
| Neonatal and Paediatric Critical Care Unit | Ventilatory support for newborns and children |
| Sleep Laboratory | Polysomnography and sleep-disordered breathing |
| Pulmonary Rehabilitation | Long-term management of chronic lung disease |
There is a detail here that trips people up. RA 10024 requires, as a qualification for sitting the licensure exam, "at least ten (10) months of internship equivalent to a minimum of one thousand five hundred (1,500) hours of respiratory therapy clinical internship under the supervision of a competent, duly qualified and registered respiratory therapist." The CHED curriculum order sets 1,600 hours. The two are not in conflict — the statute sets a floor for exam eligibility and the curriculum order sets a higher one for the degree — but if you see both figures quoted, that is why.
When comparing schools, ask which hospitals they are affiliated with and whether interns actually reach the neonatal and sleep laboratory rotations. Those are the hardest placements to secure and the easiest for a thin programme to skip.
Is There a Board Exam? Yes
The Respiratory Therapist Licensure Examination is administered by the Professional Regulatory Board of Respiratory Therapy under the PRC. Section 28 of RA 10024 prohibits anyone from practising respiratory therapy, calling themselves a respiratory therapist, or advertising as one, without having passed it and holding a valid certificate of registration and professional identification card.
The board and its exam were not immediate. RA 10024's implementing rules took effect on 22 January 2013, and the Board scheduled the first licensure examination for respiratory therapists for 29-30 October 2013 in Manila, through Board Resolution No. 4 dated 10 June 2013. PRC has administered it on a regular cycle since.
Who can sit it. Under Section 13, an applicant must be a Filipino citizen (or a foreigner from a country granting reciprocity), must be a graduate of a BS Respiratory Therapy degree from a school in the Philippines or abroad recognised and accredited by CHED, must have completed the internship described above, must be of good moral character, and must not have been convicted of an offence involving moral turpitude.
What it covers. Section 14 sets nine subjects:
- Patient Assessment and Electrocardiography
- Cardiopulmonary Pathophysiology
- Neonatal and Paediatric Respiratory Therapy
- Mechanical Ventilation
- Acid-Base Physiology and Blood Gas Interpretation
- Airway Care and Management
- Pulmonary Function Testing
- Pulmonary Rehabilitation
- Oxygen Therapy
The Board may revise, exclude or add subjects with the Commission's approval, so treat this as the statutory baseline.
What passing takes. A general average of 75%, with no grade lower than 60% in any given subject.
PRC sets the schedule, fees and testing centres for each cycle and revises them; get those from prc.gov.ph rather than from any secondary page. Our general PRC board exam requirements guide covers the filing mechanics that apply across boards, and courses with board exams puts respiratory therapy in context with the other licensed programmes.
What Respiratory Therapists Do
RA 10024 sets out the scope of practice, and it is more clinical than most people expect. A registered respiratory therapist collects and analyses specimens to help assess cardiopulmonary function, implements treatment programmes based on test findings, performs pulmonary function testing manoeuvres, performs cardiopulmonary resuscitation and provides an artificial airway, administers mechanical ventilatory support, administers pharmacologic agents related to respiratory care, provides bronchopulmonary hygiene procedures, takes part in pulmonary rehabilitation, assists in the technical and initial evaluation of polysomnography studies, assists in bronchoscopy procedures, participates in research, and teaches subjects covered by the licensure exam.
CMO 53 frames the career roles the degree targets: clinician, educator, administrator, product specialist, researcher, homecare respiratory therapist, and advocate. The product specialist and homecare roles are worth noting — respiratory equipment and home oxygen are real employment channels alongside hospital work.
One more distinction the law draws: a respiratory therapy technician is a separate, lower tier. RA 10024 defines the technician as someone who completed a two-year associate or certificate programme in respiratory therapy procedures, whose specific assignments are supervised by a registered respiratory therapist and confined to the hospital or institution of employment. If a school markets a short respiratory course, check which of the two it actually leads to.
Choosing a School
- Confirm CHED recognition first. RA 10024 makes a CHED-recognised BSRT degree a precondition for exam admission, so this is a licensure issue rather than a prestige one. Start with our guide to CHED-accredited schools and the checklist on verifying school legitimacy.
- Ask about the CHED-DOH accredited training laboratory the school uses for internship. The CMO requires one; not every school has strong access.
- Ask about rotation coverage, especially neonatal and paediatric critical care and the sleep laboratory.
- Ask for board results across several cycles. RT cohorts are small, so one year's figure is noise.
Tuition is not quoted anywhere in this guide, deliberately. Schools set their own rates and revise them most years, and a national average would mislead more readers than it helped. Ask the specific school's admissions office for the current per-semester figure plus laboratory and affiliation fees.
If you are still weighing health programmes generally, our BS Nursing guide covers the largest of them, and the STEM strand guide covers the usual senior high school preparation.
Sources
- CHED Memorandum Order No. 53, series of 2017 — Revised Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Bachelor of Science in Respiratory Therapy (BSRT) — Commission on Higher Education (programme length, internship hours and rotations, prescribed courses, graduate roles)
- Republic Act No. 10024 — Philippine Respiratory Therapy Act of 2009 — Professional Regulation Commission (board creation, exam qualifications, nine subjects, passing rating, scope of practice, technician definition)
- Board of Respiratory Therapy sets schedule of first licensure examination for Respiratory Therapists — Professional Regulation Commission (IRR effectivity, Board Resolution No. 4, first exam dates)
- 2017 CHED Memorandum Orders — Commission on Higher Education (CMO number and title verification)
