ACLS Certification

Probably. Depends on your facility. I have never heard of a hospital accepting ACLS online I'm not saying there are any that do not, but I have never heard of any taking anything except ACLS course endorsed by the AHA.

I found this at the website under FAQ's

Question: Do your PALS, ACLS and BLS certification and recertification programs earn me an American Heart Association (AHA) provider card?

Answer: Our PALS, ACLS, and BLS certification and recertification programs are formatted from the topics presented in the American Heart Association PALS, ACLS and BLS manuals, which follow current Emergency Cardiac Care guidelines. At this time, the AHA does not officially endorse any exam or course that can be completed online. The completion of our programs does not result in the receipt of an AHA provider card. Our study courses and exams are, however, thoroughly constructed to be a comprehensive review of the AHA manuals/textbooks and ECC guidelines.

I used aclsonline.us for both ACLS and PALS. Hospital tried to get information from them, got nowhere, refused to accept my certs. Lost $700 or so.

The only "on-line" ACLS I know of that culminates in an AHA provider card is "ACLS Anywhere". It functions similar to BLS where you do the didactic and test on-line but must still demonstrate your skills to an instructor. It's not really on-line per se. You must purchase the DVD which is a bit pricey and finding an instructor can be difficult. Not to mention the fact that the test is very very hard. You are given scenarios and you must complete them in a prescribed time frame and in the correct order. You have three attempts to finish before you are failed. If you fail you must purchase another "key" to try again ($150). I've been ACLS trained for over 20 years and independently run codes...this test made me sweat.

Most organizations pay for nurses to take ACLS. Doesn't yours? I got my ACLS, ABLS, TNCC, PALS and ENPC through classes offered at work and I didn't have to pay a dime.

Most organizations pay for nurses to take ACLS. Doesn't yours? I got my ACLS, ABLS, TNCC, PALS and ENPC through classes offered at work and I didn't have to pay a dime.

That is what I was going to say. If you need ACLS, your facility will offer the class for you. Some may charge you a couple dollars for the card, and maybe charge for the book. My facility has a ton of books to borrow, and it is $1.50 for your card. I don't understand why people go out and pay someone $150 for the class.

Btw, most facilities will make you retake the class if you didn't take it from them.

It can be handy to have these certifications before applying to jobs. It makes you look better than the next applicant who doesn't have their ENPC, ACLS, TNCC, etc.

OP: I am sorry that you have lost out on money and time. It's not fair to be taken advantage of.

I have never worked for a company that said you have to redo the class if it wasn't taken through them. That is a shame that companies have taken to doing this.

I don't think any facility will accept a ACLS/PALS/BLS that is completly online, there has to be a face to face part completed or who knows who actually completed the class for you. My hosp offers a 2 part ACLS renewal course, the first part is the testing from www.onlineaha.org and we do the skills check off. There has to a buisness in the community that does the same thing, I live in a small city and we have 10 places that do it. AHA is the only way!

Does anyone know if home health agency's will usually pay for those certs? work in peds home health with kids on vents, trachs, ect. and while they are stable i would feel a lot better having PALS, i e-mailed the company i work for but haven't heard anything back. i was just wondering if anyone had heard of a home health agency paying for it?

Does anyone know if home health agency's will usually pay for those certs? work in peds home health with kids on vents, trachs, ect. and while they are stable i would feel a lot better having PALS, i e-mailed the company i work for but haven't heard anything back. i was just wondering if anyone had heard of a home health agency paying for it?

I've never worked home health, so I don't really know. But do they send anyone out with code drugs? If they don't give you code drugs, what is the point in having PALS? You would have to call 911 either way.

Thank you all for your reply... I read the FAQ after I had received my temp card and I was like WHAT!? But oh well I guess it was a lesson well learned!!! I am currently unemployed and job searching and thought this would be a great chance to boost my chances in landing an interview.

Does anyone know if home health agency's will usually pay for those certs? work in peds home health with kids on vents, trachs, ect. and while they are stable i would feel a lot better having PALS, i e-mailed the company i work for but haven't heard anything back. i was just wondering if anyone had heard of a home health agency paying for it?

I don't think my agency would have paid for it but i was working another job in the hospital so kept my PALS and they were happy about it. i know i got tougher cases because of it. I would recommend you at least ask and if you can't take the class at least get your hands on the manual and read through-- preferably the current manual AND one of the last 2 older editions which give so much info on prevention and early recognition/ treatment of distress. If a pediatric home care patient stops breathing we often do bag them up and might not need to call EMS and I've even had kids that kept an AED in the home for recurrent arrests. We don't give code meds but it's very helpful if the home nurse knows the next step when EMS is called and arrived and can assist. Everyone brings something to the code- EMS brings transport, meds, equipment, and emergency expertise. The home RN brings a comfort with peds, familiarity maybe with seeing this particular child in distress, knowledge of this childs anatomy and physiology which might be different from other kids. EMS can usually figure out in seconds if you are a knowledgeable comfortable nurse and they can collaborate with you and you can figure out in seconds if they can cope with a coding kid (because sometimes they panic a bit) If I know my patient is pat risk for Torsades arrest, it's good to recognize that when they put her on a monitor. I would never initiate pushing meds but wouldn't hesitate to offer input, "maybe mag?"