Getting an Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Certification goes past CPR and Basic Life Support (BLS). It offers healthcare professionals with the skills and knowledge necessary to make crucial decisions in emergency and critical situations. These include administering IV’s, using intravenous drugs and other specialized equipment.
Who Must get Certified?
ACLS Certification is required and mandatory in most states for all doctors, nurses, paramedics and healthcare workers that are involved with emergency rooms, cardiac units and emergency transport.
Other jobs for example teachers, firefighers, lifeguards, coaches and those that deal with children are usually necesary to obtain an ACLS certification.
Through an ACLS certification means that you are a master and have the skills essential to make life-saving decisions. An applicant must complete hours of training including written and physical components that report the correct and proper approaches to different emergencies.
The American Heart Association is the governing body that comes by helping cover their guidelines every 5 years to guarantee the latest life saving techniques, medicine and equipment are used.
How can i Get Training?
Most Classes are available through medical facilities, community centers, local colleges and online. The course is also available with the American Heart Association. Where and how you decide to get training is important since you need to ensure the program is accepted and recognized by the American Heart Association.
There are many courses online that offer free and paid interactive quizzes and exams that will test out your ACLS knowledge.
To get certified, you need to complete both the online course as well as an in-person skills test for initial certification which will demonstrate you will find the hands-on training to save lives.
Once your training is done, you are ready for that ACLS exam which ensures each student needs to capability to function alone or as part of a team. An ACLS card is then provided to all students that successfully pass test. This can serve as proof of ACLS certification.
ACLS Re-certification
In order to keep your ACLS certification and improve on your skills, you need to get re-certified every two years. You can do this online and getting re-certified cost less and also the process is a lot shorter than the initial certification. It always depends on the organization that is providing the re-certification.