Updated September 17, 2026 · dates verified with the AARC (#RCWEEK26)
The October observance for respiratory therapists, explained properly—when it actually falls, the presidential proclamation that created it, and why it spent its first years in November.
Respiratory Care Week 2026 runs October 25-31, 2026. That is the window published by the American Association for Respiratory Care, which has sponsored the observance since it began. The AARC's hashtag for the year is #RCWEEK26.
Inside the week sits Lung Health Day, Wednesday, October 28, 2026. The AARC launched it in 2003 to point the week's attention outward—at patients and the public rather than only at the department. It lands on the Wednesday of Respiratory Care Week every year, so the date moves along with the week.
The observance is anchored to the last full week of October, not to fixed dates. "Full week" means Sunday through Saturday, and in 2026 the last one that fits entirely inside October begins on the 25th. That is a late start, which is exactly why so many third-party calendars get it wrong.
A quick survey of the usual suspects turns up October 19-25 on one site and October 22-28 on another, neither of which matches the AARC. If a calendar disagrees with the association that sponsors the week, the association wins. Departments, schools, and the AARC's own materials all work from the official dates.
Most appreciation weeks are declared by the profession's own association and gather momentum from there. Respiratory Care Week is unusual: it started at the White House.
On November 10, 1982, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 4997, acting under Senate Joint Resolution 193. The operative line designated "the week of November 7 through November 13, 1982, as National Respiratory Therapy Week." Congress had passed a resolution, the President signed the proclamation, and a profession that had spent decades explaining what it did finally had a week with a federal signature on it.
Two details tend to surprise even working RTs. The first is that the original week was in November, not October—the move to the last full week of October came later. The second is the name: the 1982 proclamation says Respiratory Therapy Week. The shift to Respiratory Care tracked the profession's own broadening scope, and the AARC itself did not adopt the "Respiratory Care" name until 1986.
The association is considerably older than the week. On July 13, 1946, a group of physicians, nurses, and oxygen orderlies met at University of Chicago Hospital and formed the Inhalation Therapy Association. It was chartered in Illinois on April 15, 1947 with 59 members, 17 of whom belonged to religious orders—a reminder that a great deal of early hospital care in the United States ran through Catholic sisterhoods.
The name changed roughly every generation as the work did: the American Association of Inhalation Therapists in 1954, the American Association for Respiratory Therapy in 1973, and the American Association for Respiratory Care in 1986. From oxygen orderly to ventilator management in forty years is a fairly brisk pace for any profession.
All the same observance. Unlike most appreciation weeks, though, the competing names here are historical rather than casual—each one was official at some point:
The AARC's current official name, and the one to use if you only want to be right once.
The name in Reagan's 1982 proclamation. Still technically the original, still used by people who have been in the field a long time.
What it is called inside the department, on the whiteboard, and in every group text about who is bringing food.
An informal name for the same week, not a separate event, despite what the search results suggest.
The Wednesday inside the week—October 28 in 2026—aimed at the public rather than at staff.
The AARC's official hashtag for 2026. Worth using if you want departmental posts to be findable.
Several of which surprise respiratory therapists too
The 1982 proclamation set it for November 7-13. The move to the last full week of October came afterward.
Proclamation 4997, signed by Ronald Reagan on November 10, 1982, under Senate Joint Resolution 193. Few appreciation weeks can point to a document number.
It was National Respiratory Therapy Week for years. "Respiratory Care" followed the AARC's own 1986 renaming.
Lung Health Day, every Wednesday of RC Week since 2003. In 2026 that is October 28, and it is aimed at patients rather than staff.
The 1946 meeting at University of Chicago Hospital brought together physicians, nurses, and the orderlies who actually handled the oxygen. The job title has changed considerably since.
The week moves with the calendar. Because it takes the last full week, its start date can swing by nearly a week from year to year.
Worth stating plainly, since the vagueness is precisely what a recognition week is for. Respiratory therapists manage mechanical ventilation and the decisions around it, draw and interpret arterial blood gases, run nebulizer and airway clearance therapies, assist with intubation, respond to codes and rapid responses, transport critically ill patients, and handle the ventilator alarms that punctuate a night shift at intervals designed to prevent sleep.
They work across the whole span of a hospital—NICU through adult ICU, emergency department, pulmonary function lab, sleep lab, and, increasingly, home care and outpatient pulmonary rehab. An RT may spend the morning on a neonate weighing under two pounds and the afternoon on an adult with end-stage COPD, adjusting the same underlying physiology in two completely different directions.
The part that rarely makes the job description: respiratory therapists spend a great deal of the shift explaining. To patients who are frightened and short of breath, to families deciding about a breathing tube, to newer staff learning why the vent is alarming. "Just a quick neb" is the profession's oldest joke because it is never quick and it is rarely just a neb.
If you came here looking for something to give an RT this October, our Respiratory Care Week gift guide covers that side of things. It leads with our own The Unspoken Guide To Respiratory Therapy, written by someone who has answered a 3 AM vent alarm and lived to joke about it.
The Respiratory Care Week questions people actually search for
Respiratory Care Week 2026 runs October 25-31, 2026, according to the American Association for Respiratory Care, which sponsors the observance and promotes it with the hashtag #RCWEEK26. It falls on the last full week of October.
Lung Health Day 2026 is Wednesday, October 28. The AARC launched it in 2003 and it lands on the Wednesday inside Respiratory Care Week every year, so the date moves with the week.
President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 4997 on November 10, 1982, acting under Senate Joint Resolution 193, and it has been observed annually ever since. The American Association for Respiratory Care has been its sponsor throughout.
Because that is what the 1982 proclamation specified. Reagan proclaimed the week of November 7 through November 13, 1982 as National Respiratory Therapy Week. The observance later settled into the last full week of October, where it has stayed, and picked up the Respiratory Care Week name along the way.
The observance is tied to the last full week of October rather than to fixed calendar dates, so it shifts annually. A full week means Sunday through Saturday, which is why the week can start as late as October 25, as it does in 2026.
Respiratory Care Week is the AARC's official name. RT Week, respiratory therapist appreciation week, and respiratory therapy week all point at the same observance. The original 1982 proclamation called it National Respiratory Therapy Week, so the older name has a legitimate claim.
As of August 2026 the AARC has not published a formal theme for the year. Its official hashtag is #RCWEEK26. Some third-party sites list themes the AARC does not use, so it is worth checking aarc.org directly before printing anything for a department display.