ACLS

[aflac381]

I am taking the Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) class next month and I was wondering does every specialty in nursing require ACLS? thanks.

[Reno1978, BSN, RN]

Critical Care, Emergency, PACU are the ones that come to mind.

[palmettogirl]

Also, a telemetry floors may require ACLS too. At least at my hospital they do...

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

No.......

[NeoNurseTX, RN]

Being in NICU, I'd never use it.

[jlr820]

Generally not. It would really only be required in a clinical area dealing with adult patients who would be at risk for hemodynamic instability (i.e. severe cardiovascular issues, respiratory issues, etc) where cardiac arrest or dysrhythmia managment would be required. Thus, an adult ICU, emergency department, cardiac stepdown/telemetry, PACU would be areas where it is required. Now, this is just my two cents, but I don't think it would hurt ANY nurse to have it under thier belt (but that's just me). It absolutely can't hurt to have the training no matter what area you work in (unless it is pediatrics or NICU in which case PALS and/or NRP are appropriate). For example, there are nurses on the general medical-surgical floor where I work that are not ACLS certified and I personally think that they should be. You just never know when any patient could suddenly surprise you and arrest, and having the training would be an asset. Also, who's to say that a family member couldn't suddenly arrest (its certainly been known to happen).

But anyway, no not all areas require it most generally.

[asfreeasabird]

Our hospital requires it for Critical Care areas, surgery, and med/surg charge nurses. About a year ago our small hospital instituted a code team which I understand works great at larger hospitals...we are not a large hospital. It is no longer required for me to keep up my ACLS but it goes hand in hand with my ECG that I am required to have. I think our small hospital having a code team creates nurses who have not seen a code who may be called upon to perform and may not be able to because of lack of participation with the code team. The medical charge is the recorder, the surgical charge is the equipment manager, respiratory manages airway and compressions, ER gives meds, and the ICU RN runs the code. One of the ER docs responds to the code as well as the patient care coordinater, lab etc. Once the Patient Care coordinater arrives the rest of the nurses with out "code team" badges are required to leave. We have had it happen before that 2 codes are going on at the same time in our hospital, and we only have one code team.

[mcpkin]

I work on a remote Tele med/surg floor. We are standard med/surg with no drips, except renal dosing drips. We are allowed to push Cardizem, Lopressor, or vasotec. We all must have ACLS. The floor I work on is also a Peds floor, and we also have to have Pals..

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Yeah, in my hospital that is now a larger organization, ALL nurses have to have ACLS. Another hospital down the road is madating it for all their staff. They think it makes the pt's feel more comfortable knowing the nurses have more education than just 'pump and blow'.

I'm scheduled to take it the first week of Feb.