Credit
No formal credit for continuing education has been received for this program, but nursing contact hours are being sought.  A letter of attendance documenting the hours of training will be provided upon request for qualified healthcare professionals.  Paramedics receive credit through review by your clinical coordinator.  ACLS does not qualify for NJ EMT CEU credit.

Description
The goal of the American Heart Association ACLS program is to reduce death and disability for patients who suffer cardiovascular emergencies such as cardiac arrest, acute coronary syndromes, or stroke.  Such patients need well-coordinated interdisciplinary teams for optimal treatment and outcome.  Prompt, prioritized, and coordinated team-oriented care is the cornerstone of the ACLS educational objectives.  The course is intended to teach qualified healthcare providers the essential knowledge and skills needed to perform the early phases of an actual resuscitation.  However, successful course completion does not guarantee or certify that the participant will be able to adequately perform advanced life support skills in an actual emergency.

The core of the ACLS course is completed in two days.  Optional preparatory review lectures are provided for the student that requires a brief review of EKG interpretation or emergency drug actions and dosing.  These lectures are not a substitute for initial training in these subjects.

Our course incorporates the new science from the 2005 release of the Guidelines for Emergency Cardiovascular Care.

Prerequisites

• Applicants must have a current BLS for Healthcare Providers card during the entire course and be physically able to adequately demonstrate BLS skills in class.
  
• Candidates for the course must be an advanced life support provider (e.g., physician, emergency or critical care nurse, paramedic, physician assistant, etc.) who either will direct or participate in an adult's resuscitation as part of their daily occupation or routine clinical activities.  Other health professionals may audit the course at the discretion of the Course Coordinator.
• Our program expects students to have strong abilities in static and dynamic Lead II ECG  interpretation.  Students who cannot demonstrate adequate ECG interpretive abilities will not complete the course.  Applicants without previous ECG interpreting experience shoud not enroll.  Knowledge of 12-lead EKG interpretation is helpful, but not necessary for course completion. 
• There are several good ECG books.  We find students have good experience with Basic Arrhythmias written by Gail Walraven (ISBN: 0-13-117591-2) and published by Prentice Hall.  Click here for more on this publication.
  
• Participants should be familiar with the actions and dosing of primary emergency drugs.
• Participants must have access to a Windows-based PC with CD-ROM capability to do the precourse homework.
  

Date(s) & Time(s) for 2008

ACLS Provider References
To view and read the following information, you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader:

• Guidelines 2005 ECC algorithms
• American Heart Association 2005 Guidelines for Emergency Cardiovascular Care

Click here for AHA Disclaimer.