Health Care Providers and ACLS
If you work in health care, especially if you are in charge of direct patient management or care, you will most likely be required to take advanced CPR training. Nurses and EMTs are our most common students, especially for Advanced Cardiac Life Support or ACLS training. Our training program in advanced CPR is a certification class, meaning students who complete training and pass the certification exams are awarded an ACLS certificate.
Grande Prairie First Aid Enrollment
Enrolling into our Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) program is as easy as completing the online form below. No more downloads needed; just fill up the form and submit it online. We immediately receive application forms sent through this website, but we only process it during business hours. You can expect a reply from us during the next business day, between 8 AM and 5 PM.
Advanced CPR Training
Advanced Cardiac Life Support training is a 12 hour program, spread out over two days. Training is focused on in-hospital management of cardiac arrest and other cardiorespiratory emergencies. In-hospital management includes the use of basic skills in compressions, ventilations, and defibrillation along with medication and equipment. This is the main difference between basic and advanced CPR training – basic training focuses on out-of-hospital management while advanced CPR training focuses in-hospital management.
One of the most important concepts we teach students is pharmacology, specifically for medications used during a “code”. A code is medical lingo for a cardiac emergency, usually cardiac arrest (colloquially called heart attacks).
How a Code Team Gives CPR
Codes are managed by a group of health care professionals called the “code team” or “resuscitation team”. The team is made up of different members, each with their own responsibilities:
- Leading the team
- Ventilation or rescue breaths with a bag valve mask
- Chest compressions (two or three members interchanging)
- Timing, pulse check every two minutes, and data recording
- Administration of epinephrine every three minutes
- Defibrillator, usually manual defibrillation
This is very different from basic CPR, which usually performed by one training rescuer or two trained rescuers, and without a bag valve mask. However, the ACLS program also teaches students how to perform mouth-to-mouth ventilations or rescue breaths.
Note: Students who apply to ALCS training are required to take Basic Life Support for Health Care Providers previously.
Credentials from Grande Prairie First Aid
To receive an ACLS training credential from us, remember to have complete attendance and passing grades on both parts of the certification exam – the written and practical tests. The credentials we award students with are valid for three years all over Grande Prairie and Canada.
Three years after the credential is granted to you, it will expire. However, you no longer need to take the 12-hour program again to get a new credential. The ACLS refresher program is only 5 to 6 hours, and is targeted towards students who have previously taken the advanced CPR training. After you complete the refresher class, you have to schedule and pass another set of certification exams.