BLS - Basic Life Support

Basic Life Support (BLS) training teaches fundamental life support skills that healthcare professionals use to provide medical aid during a cardiovascular emergency. BLS certification is required for all registered nurses and most hospitals require RNs, and other healthcare workers, to obtain certification through an American Heart Association (AHA) accredited course. Basic life support skills include CPR, automated external defibrillator (AED) use, and ventilations with pre-hospital and in-facility tracks available.

The AHA’s Basic Life Support certification for healthcare professionals’ course is designed specifically for nurses and other healthcare professionals who must know how to perform CPR and other basic cardiovascular life support skills in various in-facility and prehospital settings. Nurses must either be nursing students or already registered as nurses to qualify for the healthcare professionals’ course.

Two course options are available to earn BLS certification, blended learning or in-person classroom training. Both options teach the same skills and result in an AHA BLS Healthcare Provider Course Completion Card.

Students taking the Blended Learning HeartCode BLS must either purchase or be issued a license for the online portion. They activate their license at eLearning and complete the online portion of this course. Upon completion, students receive a certificate of completion they must present for enrollment in an instructor-led hands-on skills session. For Classroom BLS courses, students simply contact an AHA Training Center in their area to sign up for the next available course.

All nurses are required to obtain Basic Life Support certification, but this doesn’t have to be done before they apply for staff jobs. Hospitals and healthcare systems offer these certifications to their employees and most job offers indicate that they must obtain their BLS before starting on the unit. Newly hired nurses work with the unit and hospital educators to schedule their certification courses. However, travel nurses and per diem nurses are expected to already have BLS certification because they’re supposed to be ready to hit the ground running.

BLS certification is valid for two years. A BLS Renewal Course takes about 3 hours to complete when taking the Classroom BLS option, which includes skills practice and testing. If a healthcare professional’s BLS completion card is about to expire or expired within the past 30 days, they need only take the condensed review course for renewal. However, if the card expired more than 30 days ago, they’ll need to complete the entire basic BLS course again.

The AHA offers continuing education (CE) credits and continuing medical education (CME) for some of its courses. The American Nurses Credentialing Center, a subsidiary of the American Nurses Association, allows a maximum of one contact hour as CE credit to nurses taking the AHA’s Blended Learning HeartCode BLS Courses.

The American Red Cross also offers BLS for Healthcare Providers courses that meet various certification and licensing requirements. These courses are consistent with AHA Guidelines and offer in-person classes or blended learning that combines online coursework and in-person training. However, the ARC course isn’t as widely accepted by hospitals so always confirm with employers whether they recognize ARC-obtained BLS certification.

Providers like Pacific Medical Training offer online BLS certifications and recertifications as well.

Basic Life Support certification is required of all RNs. Depending on where they work or would like to work within a hospital, other AHA certifications may be helpful or even required. Good certifications to consider after obtaining BLS certification include:

• Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) certification, primarily required for RNs working in ICUs or any area with critically ill adults.

• Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) certification, often required for RNs who work with pediatric patients.

• Pediatric Emergency Assessment, Recognition and Stabilization (PEARS) certification, recommended for RNs and other medical professionals who aren’t specializing in pediatrics but might encounter pediatric emergencies.