Why does everyone need to be ACLS cert?

[imintrouble]

There has been a push at hospitals in my area for ALL nurses to be ACLS certified. There are repercussions for those who choose not to do the training. Fewer hours, more w/e, and generally not treated as well. I can understand the PEDs floor, ICU, ER, Cath lab..... but just plain old med surg, I don't understand. There is a code team, so it's not like there aren't enough RNs to respond. Is this a trend everywhere?

[RN/WI, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

I have my msn and have completed acts in the past. It's all about the money, just because you have an active ac ls doesn't make you a better nurse and it isn't needed on a med surgical floor is the point!!!

[sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN]

It's not required for us, but I plan to take it anyway since it's free, and I think it will help me to feel more confident if there were a situation on my floor.

Your avitar, just got me, I tried squishing the little bug running around :)

[RN/WI, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Well if it's a free class for you then why not? my point is no medical surgical floor should require it for their staff or job applicants. If they want to teach free classes of acls I'm all in. If they want every Med surg nurse to stay active in acls and end up paying for it like all the other nonsense useless certifications they come up with, I think it is a useless waste of money. It's enough paying to keep up licenses and ceus.

[Cowboyardee]

It's another crap control technique, yet once again like the b s n we so needed! We must all have more credentials then our administrators again and they're trying to hold us down.

Please don't compare ACLS class to the push for BSNs.

- BSNs cost tens of thousands of dollars and most of that money comes out of the pockets of RNs, with a conspicuous lack of the grandfathering that happens in most professions in similar scenarios.

- The benefits of a BSN over an ADN or (especially) diploma education are dubious at best, and the studies demonstrating said benefits have been so flawed as to appear deliberately misleading at times.

- An RN to BSN program is chock full of classes that have zero clinical benefit but requires thousands of hours of busywork nonetheless. Want to substitute useful classes (e.g. advanced patho or pharm) for the established courseload? Nope - back to making powerpoints and dioramas.

Meanwhile...

- ACLS is most typically paid for by the hospital requiring it. It takes literally a few hours every two years, also typically paid for by the hospital.

- ACLS demonstrably saves lives.

- Ask any responder (I am one), and they will have countless stories of situations in which they were delayed and/or situations where med-surg staff performed ACLS incorrectly enough to impact patient outcomes. The American Heart Association has increasingly been emphasizing the importance of early defibrillation when indicated. Many times, this could be done before the response team gets there, but more often than not nurses are standing around, no pads are on the coding patient, etc.

The point is a few hours every two years to improve patient outcomes in emergency situations is not remotely comparable to thousands of hours and dollars sunk to accomplish nothing much more than lining other peoples' pockets.

[RN/WI, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

You don't have to preach to me I'm still paying for my masters degree! I was making the same amount of money when I graduated with my associates , ha! What my point is I had acls once, do not use it, nurses on a med surg floor should not have to have an active certification for acls. Acls is a petty certification.