OK, I'll play, too. I finished recertifying in ACLS this afternoon. NOW I know WHY we all didn't understand each other when we were talking about the AHA manual! They revamped the WHOLE text. I didn't know until yesterday when I got the new edition. Sorry, but excluding the chapter on rhythms strips is a BIG mistake (it's excluded in the new edition, and clearly takes up a whole chapter in the previous edition). As someone already noted in here who teaches ACLS, the major differences are amiodarone and vasopressin. Everything else is pretty much as it was before.
As to the question what to study for this exam: know the algorithms. Practice writing them on a white board until you can do them in your sleep. Know the most common rhythms that you would find in a code situation: Stable/Unstable VTach, Vfib, Heart Blocks, Afib, Aflutter, Torsades. Know what happens after you treat the particular rhythm and a new one appears. When they show you the practice rhythms have the instructor show you the ones that are "look-alikes" so you can see it "up close and personal" and catch on to the differences between them.
The AHA manual is enough for this purpose. You sweat when you have to run a code in a real situation. But, as they say, when that happens, take your own pulse first. 🙂
Good luck.
Nu
