If you are looking forward to pursuing a career in the sector of health care, you might have across the word ACLS.
It is the acronym for Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support which refers to a certification that provides the set of different clinical algorithms to treat different life-threatening heart conditions.
Established originally in the year 1974, it is updated since the time regularly. If you are wondering what is ACLS certification, you should make sure to go through this write-up.
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What is ACLS Certification?
ACLS certification provides the prerequisite demonstration that a person has received training, according to the American Heart Association approved standard.
This certification offers verification that an individual has received qualifications for the performance of ACLS.
Through this certification, the person gains an understanding of basic life support. It also allows the prerequisite choice to support and lead the resuscitation team.
After the completion of the ACLS certification, the individual holding the certification is capable of the management of acute coronary syndromes and strokes.
It also helps in managing the airway of the patient.
See also: Nursing Care Plan for COPD ineffective airway clearance
It also offers the desired understanding of ACLS pharmacology.
ACLS certification is believed to be an excellent alternative to qualified medical professionals as it includes intubating the patient and administration of intravenous drugs.
See also: Can Nurse Practitioners Intubate or Not?
It happens to be a wonderful choice for medical and healthcare professionals, working for a heart health emergency, such as registered nurses, doctors, and paramedics.
In case the patient suffers from any medical crisis, the ACLS certification offers vital tools to the medical and healthcare professionals for bringing an improvement in the chances of saving the life of the patient.
People who have completed this specific certification have extensive technical knowledge.
Hence, it is considered to be the best choice for people who have several years of experience in inpatient care.
Through this certification, the students receive extensive education on how to enhance the outcome of the patient.
It also teaches the student different ways to make different efforts for keeping the neurological function of the patient intact during different cardiovascular events, like heart attacks, stroke.
See also: Telemetry Nurse Interview Questions
With this certification, medical and healthcare experts are capable of optimizing the resuscitation efforts, which play an integral role in bringing an improvement in the life of the patient.
Get your ACLS Certification Online:
What is ACLS Certification in nursing?
If you are wondering what is ACLS certification in nursing, you should go through this write-up.
Nurses working in the emergency, urgent and critical care units should receive the ACLS certification.
See also: What Does ICU Stand For?
ACLS Certification in nursing is opted by senior nurses who deal with cardiac-related emergency situations.
RNs and different licensed practical nurses should be certified and have a high familiarity with the ACLS protocols, which lend a helping hand to them while working with the patients, suffering from heart problems.
For qualification of the ACLS certification for the nurses, the student needs to go classroom and online training.
The 2nd part of this certification includes testing, practical training, and competency evaluation.
Requirements for ACLS Certification
Almost any medical professional can opt for ACLS certification.
This certification enhances the capabilities of a professional for sustaining and saving the life of a patient.
Owing to the costs and times involved in seeking this certification, only the specific people who require it choose the certification process.
However, there are certain requirements, you need to fulfill, for the completion of the ACLS certification.
The requirement for the medical professionals for receiving the certification relies on the requirements of the State.
In addition to this, it also depends on the medical institution in which they are willing to apply or are employed currently.
The majority of the medical professionals, applying for this certification are inclusive of paramedics, licenses nurses, and physicians.
See also: Can Nurses Be Paramedics?
For the completion of the ACLS certification, the students need to present the latest BLS card during the class. Only AHA or American Heart Association issue the BLS cards.
You need to remember that the card does not get expired during the day of the class.
For seeking the certification, it is necessary to demonstrate the capabilities of performing different tasks, which are associated with different learning areas successfully.
Such demonstrations are going to occur in a person with the instructor. Such skills include bag-mask ventilation skills test, CPR-AED skills test, and Mega Code test.
After the completion of all the demonstration and coursework, it is necessary to pass the multiple-choice examination.
Every exam is known to be 50-75 questions in length.
Every person, taking the test should score at least 84 percent or higher for passing the examination and getting the certification.
After passing the examination and getting the prerequisite skills, you will receive the ACLS certification.
After the completion of the examination, you will get a temporary certification card.
After this, you will get the permanent card.
You will be amazed to know that this ACLS certification holds validity for the time duration of 2 years.
What is ACLS PALS Certification?
ACLS or Advanced Cardiac Life support is regarded as the next level of care, after taking the basic measures.
PALS or Pediatric Advanced Life Support Certification contributes to being a program by AHA or American Heart Association which provides a systematic and advanced approach to the pediatric assessment.
Such a program is meant for offering the prerequisite knowledge and skills to the health care service providers to treat the critically sick children and infants.
People taking this specific certification are known to be the individuals, responding to different emergency cases, like emergency responders, pediatric care providers, ER personnel, and ICU staff.
See also: Are Nurses First Responders?
With the completion of this course, the professionals will gain an in-depth knowledge of effective resuscitation, team dynamics, PALS treatment algorithms, and efficient pediatric assessment.
In case you are planning to opt for the ACLS PALS certification, it is recommended to make use of the AHA Class Connection for the location of the training centers in the specific area, providing classroom sessions and prerequisite skills.
This program is inclusive of 100% classroom training, indicating that you are working with the AHA instructor, through the whole period of the course.
For the completion of the certification, it is necessary to seek participation in the classroom course and accomplish different learning stations.
It is essential for the student to score about 84 percent in the written exam.
In addition to this, they need to clear the skill tests, like 1 and 2 Rescuer Child BLS.
Again, you need to provide amazing performance in the 2 PALS core case scenarios in the respiratory and cardiac cases.
In both cases, you should act as the team leader for passing the course.
Other case scenarios in which you should provide the best ever performance include lung tissue disease, upper airway obstruction, lower airway obstruction, obstruction shock, lung tissue disease, bradycardia.
For the completion of PALS certification, you need to understand and prepare for the course requirements.
Students should master the BLS skills for children and infants.
Besides this, they should gain a prerequisite understanding of various airway management tools.
Get your ACLS PALS Certification Online:
What is BLS ACLS Certification?
BLS is the acronym for Basic Life Support which offers information about the basic first steps for offering stabilization to the patient.
As a BLS responder, your primary goal is ensuring that the patient should be stable until the first responder reaches out to them.
Basic Life Support certification is meant for teaching the basics to the students, like AED and CPR usage.
Apart from this, it teaches the prerequisite skills to the candidate of how to prevent choking of the adult and child.
The majority of the BLS certification courses are known to last for less than 5 hours.
It is inclusive of different ways of teaching for accomplishing a plethora of learning techniques.
They are inclusive of hands-on training with the aid of the learning stations, simulations, classroom-based work.
The Basic Life Support or BLS certification course offers the fundamental knowledge and skills regarding life support.
You can learn the latest techniques of CPR from the BLS certification.
Along with this, you will be capable of learning the most updated techniques which are effective in the management and responding to different cardiopulmonary emergencies.
This certification course includes different basic steps of CPR for children, adults, and infants.
In addition to this, it includes rescue breathing for children, adults, and infants. It features appropriate procedures as well as the use of AED or automated external defibrillator.
The BLS certification course has been approved for about 4 CEUs/CMEs and it is recommended to spend the specific amount of time, present on the online BLS certification.
The BLS certification courses are known to be nationally accredited and they are known to be accepted by the majority of the healthcare facilities and employers.
A wide assortment of medical professionals earns BLS and emergency life support certifications via different programs and courses.
Such courses are made, as per the most updated ECC and emergency cardiovascular care guidelines, which are published by AHA or American Heart Association.
Get your BLS ACLS Certification Online:
Conclusion: What is ACLS Certification?
With the completion of this certification, healthcare professionals are equipped with the prerequisite knowledge and skills for supporting the patients during the stroke, heart attack, and different emergencies.
This certification addresses a bunch of conditions, such as acute coronary syndromes, sudden cardiac arrest, stroke recognition, and treatment.
At this point, you should have a clear answer to what is ACLS certification. If you want to learn more about nursing, check out these articles of ours:
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- What Does LTAC Stand For?
- What is IBCLC?
- How to Become a Neonatal Nurse
- Neonatal Nurse Salary
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