ALS1 (Advanced Life Support) 1-Day Course

Provider: Royal Melbourne Hospital

ALS Level 1 – Immediate Life Support: This one day course is designed to give the candidate the skills for managing a cardiac arrest or other medical emergencies in a clinical setting.

This course should meet the needs of those who need more advanced skills than the Basic Life Support (BLS) courses, but who do not require the more comprehensive two day Advanced Life Support (ALS) Course.  It should provide health care staff with the essential knowledge and skills needed to treat and manage adult cardiorespiratory arrest patients.

This one day course is designed to give the candidate the skills for managing a cardiac arrest or other medical emergencies in a clinical setting.  The course covers recognition of the critically ill patient, airway management, resuscitation procedures, defibrillation and basic drug therapy.

Assessment is undertaken during skill stations throughout the day on the ABCDE approach, Initial Resuscitation and Defibrillation and Airway Management.

The aim is to train healthcare personnel to manage patients with cardiac arrest until the arrival of a MET Team (Code Blue) and to participate as members of that team.  The course will emphasise the importance of teamwork.

On successful completion of the course, the Australian Resuscitation Council awards the candidate a certificate and registration card valid for 4 years.

Topics

• Causes and prevention of Cardiac Arrest (Lecture)
• The ABCDE approach (Skill Station)
• ALS Algorithm (Lecture)
• Initial Resuscitation and Defibrillation (Skill Station)
• Crisis Resource Management (Lecture)
• Airway Management (Skill Station)
• Cardiac Arrest Simulations (Skill Station)

The objectives of the ALS1 course are to train healthcare personnel:

• in causes and prevention of cardiopulmonary arrest, the ABCDE approach, initial resuscitation and defibrillation (manual and/or AED) and simple airway management
• to manage patients in cardiopulmonary arrest until arrival of the resuscitation team
• to participate as members of the resuscitation team

On completion, participants will be able to:

• understand the causes of cardio respiratory arrest in adults
• identify patients at risk of cardio respiratory arrest
• practice techniques for airway management in a simulated environment
• identify the main cardiac rhythms associated with cardiac arrest
• identify the indications for defibrillation and demonstrate safe defibrillation in a simulated environment

Facilitators: Medical Education Unit, Jointly accredited by the Resuscitation Council (UK) and and the Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC)

Dates & Time: all course days are 8am to 4pm.