The Board shall take such actions as may be necessary to ensure the competence and integrity of any person who claims to be a respiratory therapist or who holds himself out to the public as a respiratory therapist or who engages in the practice of respiratory care and to that end the Board shall license persons as respiratory therapists. The Board shall consider and may accept relevant practical experience and didactic and clinical components of education and training completed by an applicant for licensure as a respiratory therapist during his service as a member of any branch of the armed forces of the United States as evidence of the satisfaction of the educational requirements for licensure as a respiratory therapist. The provisions hereof shall not prevent or prohibit other persons licensed pursuant to this chapter from continuing to practice respiratory care when such practice is in accordance with regulations promulgated by the Board.

The Board shall establish requirements for the supervised, structured education of respiratory therapists, including preclinical, didactic and laboratory, and clinical activities, and an examination to evaluate competency. All such training programs shall be approved by the Board.