Taking ACLS online

**NICU Guy, BSN, RN** · Sep 9, 2014

Hospitals want AHA ACLS, PALS, CPR certification. There are no AHA classes entirely online. I took an ACLS class during Spring Break of my senior year. But, I have extensive cardiac experience (former EKG tech at a hospital and Advanced EMT). You can do the class as a student, but you need to be able to recognize the rhythm strips (V tach, Normal Sinus, V fib, Atrial FIB, SVT, asystole) in order to know what to do during the hands-on Mega Code.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Sep 9, 2014

Since this is likely your first exposure to ACLS, I would highly suggest NOT doing it online or even doing an online hybrid course. First of all, the AHA ACLS course requires at least an in-person skills verification. This means you'd be doing your megacode without really practicing the skills involved. ACLS is very doable over a 2 day session. You will need to be familiar with the rhythms above, but you don't need a whole lot of schooling to become familiar with those. The drugs aren't all that difficult to learn either, well, at least when compared to previous iterations of ACLS that I've taken...

I also have fairly extensive experience with this, though not as much recently, as I am a Paramedic. Probably much like Don1984 above, I have actually had to use the information presented in the course.

After you've taken the course once or twice, or you've had significant experience with doing ACLS, doing the online didactic and in-person skills verification will be a piece of cake.

Seriously, if you can recognize VFib, VTach, Pulseless VTach, SVT, NSR, and asystole, you'll do fine. Other stuff like the blocks are also good to know, but they're also easy to learn. There's a lot more to learning EKG interpretation than is presented in ACLS. You'll also learn a little bit about stroke and basic MI / STEMI recognition and treatment.

The other thing I have to say about ACLS (and some other courses like it) is that after a while it becomes kind of like a merit badge course. It's good info and if you take the time to read the book (good idea) you can really learn a lot from it, but the actual course is not that hard. Just make sure you have a decent grasp of rhythm interpretation and you'll do just fine.

Nibbles1 · Sep 9, 2014

I'm so glad you started this thread because I was about to do the on line course as well. I really need to learn those strips. I have not had a lot of experience working with a 12 lead before. Again thank you for posting this.

wanderlustnurse88, RN · Sep 9, 2014

If you want, take coronary care 1 which you can do online prior to taking ACLS. It's a four month program that is only a few hours of work a week. If you have the time to do it. There are courses starting now. I'm taking one through loyalist collage.

KristenA · Sep 9, 2014

I have been thinking about that as well. How much is it at loyalist? Is it run that you do the coursework online and then have a final exam in person?

KristenA · Sep 9, 2014

Thanks for the help everyone! I decided to take the Coronary Care 1 course at Humber college online. I definitely think it is a better choice for me because I have limited experience and a crash ACLS course might just set me up to fail.

wanderlustnurse88, RN · Sep 10, 2014

Hi,

The course at Loyalist was around $270 I believe. It is all online with 5 lesson (which are broken into smaller subsections) and 5 assignments. There is a final exam which is closed book and you need to book it. I'm doing mine though Contact North who helps organize online courses but I believe you can write them at any college. I think one of my coworkers had my boss invigilate the exam.

Let me know if you have any more questions. I just started the course yesterday but it seems pretty good.

relaxingbath · Sep 10, 2014

Not sure if this of any use buy I recently completed an ACLS course at Mcmaster university it ran over one weekend and was pretty compressed there was a selection of physicians. RNs and myself there it ran on the assumption that you had already done studying on the subject. I personally really enjoyed the experience and found that I learned a lot not just from the teachers but from the others taking the course, I liked getting feed back on my technique something that i'm not sure you would get from an online course.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Sep 10, 2014

Not sure if this of any use buy I recently completed an ACLS course at Mcmaster university it ran over one weekend and was pretty compressed there was a selection of physicians. RNs and myself there it ran on the assumption that you had already done studying on the subject. I personally really enjoyed the experience and found that I learned a lot not just from the teachers but from the others taking the course, I liked getting feed back on my technique something that i'm not sure you would get from an online course.

For Experienced Providers, their ACLS-EP is geared more toward this sharing of knowledge and thus raising everyone's. Regardless, the in-person course(s) tend to provide a dynamic that is impossible to re-create in the online courses. There's a lot of discussion during the lab sessions that allow people to share what they know and have learned. I've learned other ways to secure a BVM to a face from those sessions.