do you have ACLS?

[OBNurseShelley]

Just wondering how many L&D nurses have ACLS, and does your hospital require it? I do not and only a few of us do....but I'm seriously considering becoming certified, I've only worked in L&D and don't intend to work anywhere else, but we often have critically ill patients and we do our own c-sections and recoveries in the PACU, so TECHNICALLY we're supposed to have acls, but we've been getting around it. We're a busy facility that does lots of high-risk, I'd like to feel more comfortable. What do you think about someone with very little telemetry experience becoming ACLS certified? Thanks all! SHelley

[jwk]

The whole idea behind ACLS is not to create experts in resuscitation. It's to familiarize people with the processes and currently accepted therapies. It helps you recognize trends and problems before you get all the way down the road to an arrest. No one is comfortable in a code when you only see one once a year or even less. No on expects L&D nurses to run a code from start to finish, but at least you won't be standing around with your thumb up your *** wondering what to do.

The standards change. The algorithms and treatments are much more based in solid evidence and science than they were years ago. That's why it's important to stay current. 25 years ago, the first drug we gave was 2 amps of bicarb, which it was assumed was a good thing because all the patients were acidotic. Problem is that is was mainly a respiratory acidosis, at least early on, and patients were ending up with sky-high sodium levels that caused it's own set of problems and mortality. CPR changes as well, again, based on solid evidence and science instead of just assuming something works when it really doesn't.

If you rotate through the OR and PACU in your unit, you should have ACLS - period. Anything less and you're cutting corners in patient care. Those of you who whine and complain about taking the class? Too bad. Trust me, I've heard it all - it's too hard, the instructor was a jerk, I didn't understand it, I don't have time, blah, blah, blah. Either you want to be able to provide the best possible care to your patients or you don't. If you don't, you're in the wrong profession.

[tntrn, ASN, RN]

I will agree to agree in part with that last post. WE do need to know something about ACLS. But to take a class once every two years and have absolutely no need for it in that two year period does nothing to keep you current. The one and only thing I remember from ACLS is amiodarone and that is only because it sorta rolls off the tongue in a very lyrical way, unlike most other med names. But I don't remember what it does or when it should be used.

I think SBE said it best, and I'll paraphrase: we are putting ourselves in a legal mine field if we are portrayed as ACLS competent (which is way different from ACLS certified) in some settings: OB would be one of them.

This is just my opinion, of course.

[jenrninmi, MSN, RN]

Just wondering how many L&D nurses have ACLS, and does your hospital require it? I do not and only a few of us do....but I'm seriously considering becoming certified, I've only worked in L&D and don't intend to work anywhere else, but we often have critically ill patients and we do our own c-sections and recoveries in the PACU, so TECHNICALLY we're supposed to have acls, but we've been getting around it. We're a busy facility that does lots of high-risk, I'd like to feel more comfortable. What do you think about someone with very little telemetry experience becoming ACLS certified? Thanks all! SHelley

I do not have ACLS and no, my hospital does not require it.