ACLS recertification online

[Dinkyconductor]

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Has anyone renewed their ACLS certification online lately?

If so, has anyone used a website that they would recommend? They all seem pretty similar (just an online multiple choice test), but I wanted to see if anyone had any experience with any of them.

Thanks.

 

[jwk]

Has anyone renewed their ACLS certification online lately?

If so, has anyone used a website that they would recommend? They all seem pretty similar (just an online multiple choice test), but I wanted to see if anyone had any experience with any of them.

Thanks.

You need to make sure your credentialling departments will allow a non-AHA ACLS program before you spend the money. Many actually specify that it has to be an AHA course.

 

[aneftp]

You need to make sure your credentialling departments will allow a non-AHA ACLS program before you spend the money. Many actually specify that it has to be an AHA course.

I agree. Be very careful. Many require the AHA ACLS course.

You could do a hybrid. I did the AHA online/CD course and than did the "skills" test at a local university hospital on a Saturday morning. I was in/out of the "skills" portion in 5 minutes. Frankly took longer to park and walk than the actual skills portion.

Instructor just asked what I did for a living. Told him I was anesthesiologist. He just said, let's cut out the bullcrap (portion of the skills tests). Ran one mock code, and I was out the door.

Simple, fast.

But CD/online does take about 2-3 hours to complete.

Or find someone in the hospital ER/EP lab who does ACLS and pay him/her off.

We're anesthesiologists, we really should be exempt from this stuff.

 

[pgg]

IWe're anesthesiologists, we really should be exempt from this stuff.

It's interesting to me that ACLS is this sacred credential cow, but we're allowed to take care of kids without PALS.

 

[FiremedicMike]

It's interesting to me that ACLS is this sacred credential cow, but we're allowed to take care of kids without PALS.

They're both equally useless certifications at all levels of medicine..

To the OP, our department in it's infinite wisdom decided outside training was no longer necessary. This is the online program we're using for ACLS now. I definitely wouldn't recommend it, as it's pointless, but it does give some fancy "eACLS" card at the end.

http://www.kaplansolutions.com/programs/ems-training/acls-certification

 

[aneftp]

It's interesting to me that ACLS is this sacred credential cow, but we're allowed to take care of kids without PALS.

I believe in Florida, if you are taking care of kids under the age of 13, you need to have PALS. Maybe it varies by state regulations or hospital regulations.

 

[Oggg]

+1 to what everyone said above.

all the online sites offering ACLS cert without a in-person/live skills test are non-AHA. Most just have you sign a form saying you've done the clinical stuff at work. If you're going to pay, you might as well pay for the real AHA ACLS card.

If your ACLS is not expired, you can go to a recertification course that takes one day.

If your ACLS is expired, they make regular people retake the 2 day course. One center near us offered us a "Challenge" course since we were all anesthesiologists, and that takes up one morning only.

If you can't get the Challenge course, the neat thing is that AHA now offers a CD + live-skills-testing option called Heartcode. The CD takes a couple of days to do, but it comes with the electronic AHA book (don't buy the stupid paper book) AND you get 12 CME units! And you only have to go in for a short skills test.

Since there wasn't a PALS challenge course for us, my group opted to do the PALS Heartcode CD at home, then on one Saturday morning, we did an ACLS challenge course followed by the PALS-Heartcode skills-only test, and done by lunch.