We require American Heart Association BLS. Some of our team members also have ACLS or PALS certifications, but BLS is still required.
We do encounter people who will try to bring in other certifications. There are many online courses that will state they are taught according to AHA guidelines using the current ECC guidelines. However, those courses are not approved AHA instructors or training centers and many times the participants do not have to demonstrate skills. We do not accept those.
Just as Dr. Snider mentioned above, we have also transitioned to the AHA RQI program without our system. Our hospitals use it, and we have rolled it out in almost all of our clinics. The quarterly process is about equal in terms of time used for BLS (when comparing two years worth of quarterly skills/cognitive assessments versus the prior method with either an in the seat class or Heartcode BLS online with skills validation). For our team members and providers who have advanced certifications as well there is a significant time savings over the two year period. We're able to see the improvement in skills as well. We use a van with a wheelchair lift to take one of our carts to some of our clinics that aren't near one of our hospitals or who have a larger volume of staff that need to do skills. The first time I went to one of the clinics with the cart I had someone grumbling about "I don't know why we have to do this quarterly now". I asked her when she last took the class and it was almost two years previously. I then asked her when the last time she performed CPR in a real environment was and she had never performed CPR outside of the classroom. If someone were to have a cardiac arrest event in a group setting that team member is in, her friends and family would look to her as the healthcare worker to be able to perform competent CPR. You could see the pieces connect after that conversation, and we've had so many team members tell us that they feel more comfortable with the skills!
If anyone is considering using the RQI program and is concerned about how that would work within their ambulatory setting I'm more than happy to connect and share our experiences and lessons learned!
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Andrea Kelly MSN,RN,NPD-BC
Director, Population Health
Vidant Medical Group
Greenville NC
(252)847-3930
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-09-2022 13:14
From: Deb Divan
Subject: BLS requirements
Hi All -
What are your requirements for BLS? Does your organization require an AHA-approved certification or accept any BLS course?
I'm trying to determine best practice for our organization; currently it's a mixed bag of BLS certifications.
I apologize in advance if this topic has been discussed before - I didn't see it in the threads but I may have missed it.
Thank you!
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Deb Divan
Director of Nursing
Neighborhood Health
Escondido CA
(616)841-1077
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