Do you need Basic Life Support to take Advanced Cardiac Life Support?

This is a difficult question to answer, because it is very subjective. The American Heart Association (AHA) does not have a strict requirement to have a BLS card (eCard) to take ACLS. However, BLS is emphasized in great detail throughout the ACLS course that a good portion of ACLS tests are BLS questions. BLS is discussed directly during the ACLS course and return demonstration of BLS skills are required in an ACLS class.

With that being said, it is Absolute CPR’s position that students taking our Advanced Cardiac Life Support class (and our Pediatric Advanced Life Support class) have a current AHA BLS card.

Why would you need a BLS card to take ACLS?

Like life, you have to learn the basics before you do anything advanced, just like the titles of these classes. Basic Life Support is a class that takes basic life supporting skills and turns them into a class required by almost all healthcare professionals. Advanced Cardiac Life Support takes these important basic life supporting skills and expands on advanced skills such as IV therapy, IV medication administration, advanced airway maneuvers and management, electrical therapy (Defibrillation, cardioversion, and pacing), and most importantly, when to use all these advanced therapies in the right order to improve the chance of survival. This class is not required by every healthcare provider but is specific to healthcare providers who care for select patient populations where cardiac arrest and peri-arrest patients are common.

Without implying any hint of elitist mentality, just because you know ACLS does not make you a BLS expert. The same is true for ACLS. All these classes contain skills to improve patient outcomes. Like any skill, practice and repetition are necessary to become proficient. Just because you work in a high-acuity care setting and performing CPR and resuscitation efforts are practiced regularly still does not make experts of healthcare providers working in these areas. Better than other healthcare providers, yes. Just because you take these classes every other year and participate in a few code blues does not make anyone an expert.

Taking these classes is almost always a requirement. It is something you need to do. Just do it. Whether basic or advanced, learn these life-supporting skills to not only better yourself, make you a better provider, but also increase the chances of patient survival.

You have to remember, Absolute CPR does not have anything to do with your work requirements. Absolute CPR does not have anything to do with your educational institution’s requirements. Absolute CPR does not regulate how long these classes are valid for. Neither do you. While we could discuss these topics at great length neither of us are going to get decades of tradition changed any time soon. You took that position or signed up for that program with these requirements in mind, take the classes. You do not have to take the classes here at Absolute CPR. But you have to take the classes

Our position on BLS

Absolute CPR believes you should have a current, valid AHA BLS card to take ACLS. It is under our “prerequisites” descriptions in our classes, and we ask you to bring your current, valid AHA BLS card to class to verify this. With that said, we are not going to kick you out or send you home if you do not have a card. But we will not allow any latitude if you are not able to return high-quality BLS skills or struggle with BLS questions throughout the class, and especially on the test.