ACLS or PALS

ANYONE can become ACLS or PALS certified. Seriously. My father--who was not in a healthcare career at all--could have signed up for ACLS or PALS and provided that he passed the knowledge and skills/megacode demonstration, would have walked out with certification. There are no requirements for enrolling in ACLS or PALS. All you need to do is enroll in and pass the course.

You will get to do things in the class that you won't be able to do under your scope of practice (i.e., start lines, order and push drugs, etc.), though it'll be on mannequins. The instructors know that students won't be able to do everything in a real code, and that's OK. But in class, you get to do/simulate doing them. In fact, you'll be leading a megacode as part of your final skill test. You'll be giving medication orders to your staff, coordinating what happens during the code, making the critical decisions, all the fun stuff :)

And besides, knowing how everything work and the why behind it is still immensely helpful during a real code, even if you won't ever be able to push epi.

Thank you so much! I had someone tell me that they didn't think I would be able to take the class, but couldn't find anything that said that. I just want to be as prepared as possible even if I won't be able to perform all the steps in real-life practice. :)

If you are at all uncertain, contact your local AHA training center to verify that you can register. I did glance at the AHA site quickly and didn't see anything that said, "thou shalt be a nurse/doctor/etc." as an absolute requirement for taking ACLS or PALS.

Though they may wonder why my father the mechanic would have wanted to be ACLS certified and would have been concerned about whether he'd be able to master the content, there's nothing stating that he wouldn't have been allowed to do the course. He just wouldn't have been able to do anything during a real-life code except perhaps initiate/perform BLS and act as a scribe--the rest is outside the scope of mechanic practice.

So I see no reason why they'd turn a LVN down from enrolling.