Dave Shuldes ’99

[Dave Shuldes, 2024 Distinguished Alumni]: I came to Idaho in 1988, and one of the first groups of people that I met when I came to Idaho as a respiratory therapist was the Boise State faculty. I had an associate’s degree in respiratory therapy when I first got here, but they were offering a bachelor’s degree in respiratory therapy. And long story short, I signed up and invested in getting my bachelor’s degree.

[Conrad Colby, Professor Emeritus, Department of Respiratory Care] His service to the Department of Respiratory Care was in the advisory board capacity. He brought really, ultimately, better care to patients through the school being more in tune with what is currently most approved as a procedure or technique for treating patients, particularly—not exclusively—but often on ventilators.

[Lutana Haan EdD, RRT, RPSGT, Senior Associate Dean, College of Health Sciences] Dave always had a caring approach to all things that he brought to the conversation. We wanted to treat the student as we would want the student to treat the patient when they entered the care arena. He kept in mind both the student and advocating for the respiratory therapist, but also really patient-centered as well as, I would say, evidence-based care.

[Conrad Colby]The art of ventilating people, particularly people who are in, so-called adult respiratory distress syndrome, was very controversial as to what the best procedure would be in general and how to manage that patient and how to treat with low volume ventilation. Prior to that, they’d been treated with different volumes in terms of how much air was given per breath. And he brought that protocol to change the way—in fact, probably pretty much worldwide—patients who had adult respiratory distress syndrome were ventilated.

[Dave Shuldes] RT students are very much influenced by the experience they have when they come in the hospital with their clinicals. So I really tried to work with my staff to help them understand the way the students experience their training, and their experience with their relationship with their preceptor is going to transfer to their relationship with patients that they care for.

[Lutana Haan] If we mimic our treatment of students, the way Dave mimics the treatment of patients, we will be able to create therapists that also carry on that caring kind of legacy that Dave created.

[Dave Shuldes] I just have such a great respect for the faculty that we’ve had at Boise State University over the years, and the people that I’ve been able to work with. Every single one of them has just been a delight and a pleasure to work with.

I was so grateful to be able to get to work with the medical advisory board all those years. And to have a dialog, a true dialog at the table… both what’s good for the program and what’s good for the hospital.

[Lutana Haan] Dave’s biggest impact has really been the impact on building a strong community. He not only built a strong community within the hospital setting as a respiratory therapist, but also the community amongst respiratory therapy faculty and students that we really still carry on today.