At the American Heart Association, it’s critical that we acknowledge and meet the needs of healthcare providers. That’s why we launched our new Basic Life Support for Prehospital Providers Course – a course that uses real-life, team environments customized for the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) audience.
Each year in the United States, more than 400,000 children and adults experience a cardiac arrest outside the hospital, and only 10 percent survive. Oftentimes, the EMS professionals arriving at the scene are the first ones to provide quality patient care to these victims. These heroes are on the front lines of healthcare and need training tools and materials tailored to serve them in the unique environments where they encounter patients.
EMS professionals have asked the AHA for a course to help them provide better patient care, and with this new course (LINK), we believe we’re better meeting their needs. It is the first training program from AHA specifically designed according to the new National EMS Education Standards and training needs of prehospital providers.
“The American Heart Association’s new course includes high-performance team CPR training designed to help increase survival from cardiac arrest. It features a variety of interactive, real-world scenarios EMS professionals encounter in the field every day,” said Mark Terry, MPA, NREMT-P, Deputy Chief of Johnson County Med-Act. “Advanced training for EMS professionals is a primary key to starting the chain of survival and achieving good patient outcomes through the delivery of high-quality CPR and strong basic life skills.”
While tailored for prehospital providers, this course covers the same objectives as BLS for Healthcare Providers, and successful completion results in a BLS for Healthcare Providers course completion card. BLS for Prehospital Providers is for prehospital emergency care professionals, including emergency medical technicians (EMTs), police officers, fire fighters, paramedics and advanced EMTs (AEMTs).
Our frontline EMS heroes are a critical element in the chain of survival. It is imperative that they have the tools they need to effectively perform their job. We’re proud to release new training materials designed not only to meet their needs, but help them save more lives.
We are so grateful that the first responders at my husaband’s cardiac arrest were well trained. I support any ongoing education for our emergency personnel.