Advanced Cardiac Life Support, also known as ACLS, is a protocol for managing patients who encounter severe medical emergencies such as cardiac arrest. The ACLS certification course teaches the participants on how to diagnose and administer care for an adult victim of cardiac and respiratory arrest as well as any other cardiopulmonary emergencies.
The Advanced Cardiac Life Support training course has been designed for healthcare professionals who are involved in cardiovascular emergencies, be it the participation or direction in cardiopulmonary arrest management. This comprises of personnel in critical care units, intensive care units, emergency medicine departments, and emergency response units.
ACLS training emphasizes the importance of basic life support CPR to patient survival, integration of effective basic life support with advanced cardiovascular life support interventions and the importance of effective team interaction and communication during resuscitation. ACLS is different from Basic Life Support (BLS) as it covers a much broader range of possible problems. It focuses on the stabilization of a patient before and after an emergency. Due to the very advanced nature of several treatment techniques as well as the controlled availability of many emergency devices and medications, ACLS training is restricted to medical personnel who are demonstrated to BLS skills before the course begins.
At the core of the ACLS technique is a fast and easy understanding of the diagnostic system that comprises a number of flow charts. This system gives an emergency responder the ability to quickly perform a number of basic tests on a patient that allows the diagnosis to travel along the flow chart until the most likely scenario for the emergency has been reached. In situations where the cause of a life-threatening event is rare or not obvious, this system can give medical personnel guidance in the steps that might be required to stabilize the patient.
A person who goes through the ACLS training will be also be taught a number of pharmacological treatments that can be used in the case of a cardiopulmonary or respiratory emergency. This type of training is often not given during BLS course because it requires a detailed understanding of the body and also access to the actual drugs that need to be used. Finally, you will feel more confident in your role, as you will learn about everything from the use of the automated external defibrillator to recognizing respiratory arrest.
