It depends on whether they will let the doctors touch them.
Great question.
Is it a set it and forget it?
Or once set up can a lesser skilled person monitor it and ask for help as needed?
Addendum question: How many minutes would it take to train a medical school student to manage one, under supervision, if the supply of ventilators would exceed the supply of Inhalation Therapists?
That is something that engineers are trying to design, ventilators that laymen can operate. They would also have to waive liability laws so hospitals can run the ventilators without using the certified technicians.
How many ventilators could a Vent Tech check if a Vent Tech could check Vents?...............
There are such things as home ventilators.
Respiratory medicine is not something I have management skills in.
My wife and daughter are Nurses - with ICU specialty - and both completed the premier certification for ICU work - CCRN (Critical Care Registered Nurse)...which can add anothr $1 to $2 per hour of salary with the CCRN certification.
FIRST - Ventilator are NOT used on regular med/surg floors - so many nurses are not familiar with vents - and don’t use them.
SECOND - ICU nurses have assignments based on patient acuity - some extreme cases like a patient post-op heart surgery like a bypass...is likely to be 1 nurse to 1 patient. Less serious - 1 RN might handle 2 patients. If patients can be say 25%...1 RN handling 4 less serious patients - that is about the lowest that the ICU ever goes. Typical average- per my reference experts - is 1 RN has 2 patients. SO - if a patient is on a Vent - are there other problems that require more oversight - or just the vent? Usually - the patient is in there for more problems than just respiration.
SOMETIMES- if breathing is the only serious problem - the patient might be moved to the step down unit - Progressive Care Unit (PCU) - if there are nurses on staff familiar with ventilators.
BUT - for this exercise - assume 1 RN could safely monitor 2 vent patients unless there are other serious problems. A Respiratory Tech can provide oversight of just ventilator operation.
BUT - you need that coverage 24/7 for every operational ventilator - so for a week of ICU ops with 20 patients - all on vents - 10 nurses per shift - and be 14 shifts in a week. A full time nurse might be working 3 shifts/week. So - you need 5 nurses for the week. (And - with time off - vacations - etc. - you might have 6 or 7 available)
SO - if you doubled the vents from 20 to 40 - you would need to double the staff available to provide the additional coverage....
ALSO note - most hospitals will select sharp RNs with experience - to try to train up for the ICU - and it can take 6 months or more to be fully trained to be an ICU nurse.