CPR For Healthcare Providers

The American Heart Association designed the BLS course to prepare a wide variety of healthcare professionals to recognize several life-threatening emergencies and to provide CPR, use an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), and relieve choking in a safe, timely, and effective manner.

The course includes adult, child, and infant rescue skills in both the out-of-hospital and in-hospital setting.

At the end of the BLS course students will be able to:

1. Describe the steps of CPR
   • When to start CPR
   • When to give breaths, including with barrier devices
   • When to check for a pulse
   • How to give compressions at the proper depth and rate and with complete chest recoil
   • When to use AED
2. Describe the signs and actions for severe airway obstruction in the responsive and unresponsive victim
3. Describe the links in the Chain of Survival, including the importance of
   • Activating the appropriate emergency response system
   • Performing CPR
   • Provide early defibrillation
   • Ensuring the arrival of early advance care by activating the appropriate emergency response system
4. Describe the signs of four common life-threatening emergencies in adults
   • Cardiac arrest
   • Choking
   • Stroke
   • Heart attack

At the end of the course the students will be able to demonstrate the following skills:

1. Activating the emergency response system
2. Giving breaths for adult, child, and infant victims using
   1. Mouth-to-mouth ventilation
   2. Mouth-to-mask ventilation
   3. Bag-mask ventilation
3. Giving compression for adult, child, and infant victims
   1. Pushing hard and fast
   2. Allowing full chest recoil
   3. Minimizing interruptions in compressions
4. Performing 1- and 2-rescuer CPR for adult, child, and infant victims
5. Using an AED for victims greater or equal to 1 year of age
6. Relieving choking in the responsive and unresponsive victim of any age

Lesson- and Video-Based Structure

The BLS course is video-based and divided into multiple lessons. Many of the lessons are practice-while-watching lessons that allow the students to watch the video while practicing skills on a manikin.

The video instruction shapes the course. It defines course content and skill practice intervals and provides consistent instruction to every participant in every class. It should help instructors maintain a tight schedule and carefully integrated curriculum.

This course is structured to allow significantly greater practice time for all students, which should help students perform CPR more effectively. The bottom line is to train people to do better CPR in real life, thus increasing the probability of survival.

Minimum course content of BLS includes these components:

• Part 1: General Concepts
• Part 2: CPR for Adults
• Part 3: CPR for Children (1 Year of Age to Puberty)
• Part 4: Adult and Child Bag-Mask Technique and Rescue Breathing.
• Part 5: 2-Rescuer CPR for Adults and Children
• Part 6: Automated External Defibrillator
• Part 7: CPR for Infants
• Part 8: Relief of Choking
• Part 9: Special Considerations
• Part 10: The Big Picture