BLS, PALS and ACLS: Life Support Classes You Should Take
Hospitals now have very strict rules and regulations in place for their staff. As a part of their educational requirements, hospitals now ask their staff or new hires to complete basic and advanced medical life support classes. These classes are held through classroom or online mode and you can enroll yourself for them through the registration website. To help you out, we've listed a few details about the courses for your information.
Finding the right courses
You can use the AHA website to find the courses that are relevant to your expertise. There are several grades of courses listed on the site and they are separate according to the eligibility of the students. You can choose from BLS, ACLS and PALS courses and several more courses that are listed at the AHA website. However, we recommend that you start with the BALS course and follow it up with the ACLS and the PALs course.
Eligibility criteria for the courses
The BLS course is open for civilians and for medical personnel. Ideally, medical personnel are taught BLS in the first year of medical college. Now, the rules have changed and most hospitals train their medical personnel every year in basic and advanced life care procedures. The advanced courses include the ACLS and the PALS course. The ACLS course is only for medical professionals as it builds on the existing medical knowledge and clinical skills of the doctor. The PALS course is only for medical professionals and professional workers who have to deal with children on a daily basis. Medical professionals will have to complete the BLS course and provide a pretest assessment score to the instructor before they can sit for the course.
Length
The length of the course is kept simple so that civilians and professionals can complete the course quickly. The BLS course is short and it is usually about 4.5 hours long. If you choose to take an online class, it will get even shorter to about 2 hours. The ACLS course is slightly longer as it will teach students have to use medical equipment and deal with cardiac emergencies. The course is stipulated to about 12 -- 15 hours and it will extend for 2 days. The PALS course is about 18 hours long or more and is spread out over 2 days. The course length may also vary if you take it through an online format.
Cost
The AHA does not regulate the cost of the course. As a result, centers usually charge a small fee for the course and they may provide course materials. You should know that the ACLS and the PALS courses are advanced courses and you will have to bring extra textbooks for the course. You may also be asked to read up in advance.
Course format
The BLS course is very simple and it has a teaching class followed by a practical. Students are encouraged to complete both sections for the BLS certification online. After completing the course, they can apply for an exam and then acquire the online BLS certificate. The ACLS course is also taken through a classroom. The class can accommodate 30 students in total and an AHA-approved instructor teaches the course. A practical class is also taken to teach the use of the ECG, and Defibrillator machine. After the class, the students have to complete an ACLS certification online exam. The PALS course also follows the same format for PALS certification online. After completing the exam, you will be provided with an AHA-approved certification card.
Recertification
The ACLS and PALS cards are only valid for two years. After 2 year, the student has to apply for an ACLS online renewal to get a new AHA card. The online ACLS exam is easy and it takes about two weeks for the new ACLS recertification online card to reach you through post. Please note that the ACLS renewal course is shorter as it is meant to revise the content and brush up technical knowledge.
We hope that this short guide has helped you make a decision. Remember that life support skills can literally save the lives of the sick and the injured. It just takes 5 hours to complete the course and it is very useful. You have nothing to lose and several lives to gain.
