New to the healthcare field?  When it comes to certification courses, aspiring healthcare professionals may be unsure of exactly which courses they need to take. The differences between certifications like Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) can become a bit murky at times. All these terms describe types of CPR training for healthcare providers and professional rescuers. Emergency life support training and certification is essential for healthcare providers, medical paraprofessionals, and first responders. The three certifications are based on guidelines set forth by the American Heart Association (AHA). The AHA is the leader in resuscitation science, education, and training, and publisher of the official Guidelines for CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC).  BLS, ACLS, and PALS courses teach critical skills needed to save a life during a cardiac event. While there is some overlap between the content of these courses, they each teach a different set of skills. However, depending on your job title and work environment, you will find that one of these courses most closely aligns with your occupational requirements. 

What’s the Difference?

Basically the objective of ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) and BLS (Basic Life Support) are the same, which is learning how to aid in saving the life of someone in cardiac arrest. However, the distinction between ACLS and BLS is the level of advancement between the two. PALS is more specialized and as the name indicates is focused on performing the advanced levels of life savings skills on children.

Let’s summarize what these certifications cover.

BLS: Basic Life Support

As you may suspect from its name, Basic Life Support certification covers the minimum emergency care you need to know before professionals can take over. It focuses on basic life-saving techniques that are essential for the immediate management of cardiac arrest, choking, or other life-threatening situations. It is designed for healthcare providers and individuals who are not healthcare professionals but may need to respond to emergencies in their workplace or community. Techniques covered in the course include:

• Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR): CPR is a technique used to maintain blood flow and oxygenation to vital organs when someone's heartbeat and breathing have stopped. The basic steps of CPR involve chest compressions and rescue breaths (mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-mask ventilation).

• Use of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs): AEDs are portable devices that can analyze a person's heart rhythm and deliver an electric shock, if necessary, to restore a normal heartbeat in case of sudden cardiac arrest.

• Airway Management: Ensuring a clear airway is crucial in providing proper ventilation. Techniques for clearing airway obstructions, such as the head-tilt/chin-lift or jaw thrust maneuver, are taught in BLS courses.

• Rescue Breaths: BLS training covers techniques for delivering rescue breaths, which provide oxygen to a non-breathing or inadequately breathing individual.

• Choking Management: BLS courses include techniques to help individuals who are choking and cannot breathe effectively. This includes abdominal thrusts (Heimlich maneuver) for conscious choking victims and CPR with chest compressions for unconscious choking victims.

Overall, a BLS class is a good choice if you just want to meet an employer’s requirement or brush up on your knowledge of first aid. The AHA’s BLS Course is designed for healthcare professionals and other personnel who need to know how to perform CPR and other basic cardiovascular life support skills in a wide variety of in-facility and prehospital settings. As for prerequisites to take a BLS course, most courses do not require specific educational or training backgrounds. BLS is designed to be accessible to a wide range of individuals, including healthcare providers and non-healthcare professionals. Participants typically need to be physically able to perform the required technique of chest compressions.

ACLS: Advanced Cardiac Life Support

This advanced class teaches the same life support techniques as the BLS, but in more detail and with many more first aid procedures added into the curriculum. As a prerequisite to taking an ACLS course, students are not required by the AHA to have a current BLS Provider card, but they are expected to be proficient in BLS skills. The techniques taught in ACLS focus on a systematic approach to the assessment and management of cardiac arrest and related conditions. Some of the key techniques include:

• Advanced Airway Management: Participants learn various advanced airway techniques, such as endotracheal intubation and the use of supraglottic airway devices, to ensure proper ventilation and oxygenation during cardiac arrest and respiratory distress.

• Recognition and Treatment of Cardiac Arrhythmias: ACLS emphasizes the recognition and appropriate treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, including ventricular fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, pulseless electrical activity (PEA), and asystole. Participants are taught to interpret electrocardiograms (ECGs) to identify these arrhythmias accurately.

• Defibrillation and Cardioversion: Participants learn how to operate manual defibrillators to deliver synchronized cardioversion for certain arrhythmias and unsynchronized defibrillation for pulseless rhythms.

• Administration of Medications: ACLS covers the use of various emergency medications used during cardiac emergencies, such as epinephrine, vasopressin, amiodarone, and atropine.

• Post-Cardiac Arrest Care: The course emphasizes the importance of providing immediate post-cardiac arrest care, including targeted temperature management (therapeutic hypothermia) and optimization of hemodynamics.

• Team Dynamics and Communication: Effective teamwork and communication are critical during resuscitation efforts. ACLS training includes scenarios where participants practice these skills in a simulated team setting.

The ACLS course is geared towards healthcare professionals who either direct or participate in the management of cardiopulmonary arrest or other cardiovascular emergencies or personnel in emergency response. 

PALS: Pediatric Advanced Life Support

While the ACLS course teaches emergency management of adults experiencing a cardiac event, the PALS course specifically teaches emergency management of children and infants experiencing a cardiac event, respiratory failure, or shock. PALS was developed by the AHA and the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1988 as a specialty certification that specifically teaches medical professionals life-saving care to infants and children. The PALS Provider Course teaches how to properly assess pediatric patients with respiratory emergencies, shock, and cardiopulmonary arrest, provide advanced interventions, and utilizing scenarios while applying critical thinking skills. Techniques taught in a PALS course include:  

• Pediatric Assessment: How to perform a systematic evaluation of a pediatric patient, including recognizing and managing respiratory distress, respiratory failure, shock, and cardiac arrest.

• Basic Life Support (BLS) for Pediatrics: Perform high-quality CPR techniques specific to infants and children, including chest compressions, ventilation, and the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

• Pediatric Pharmacology: Appropriate medication dosages and administration routes for pediatric patients, including emergency medications for respiratory distress, shock, and cardiac arrest.

• Respiratory Emergencies: Identification and early management of various respiratory conditions, such as asthma, croup, and foreign body airway obstruction.

• Cardiovascular Emergencies: Recognition and treatment of pediatric arrhythmias, bradycardia, tachycardia, and other cardiac conditions.

• Vascular Access: Techniques for obtaining intravenous (IV) access and intraosseous (I.O.) access in pediatric patients.

• Effective Resuscitation Team Dynamics: The importance of effective communication and teamwork during pediatric emergencies.

• Post-Cardiac Arrest Care: Management of pediatric patients following successful resuscitation from cardiac arrest, including therapeutic hypothermia when indicated.

• Pediatric Megacode Scenarios: Practice in simulated pediatric emergency scenarios to apply learned skills and knowledge in a controlled setting.

• PALS Algorithms: Learning and understanding the step-by-step algorithms provided by the AHA for managing pediatric life-threatening emergencies.

BLS, ACLS and PALS Training at ACLS Academy

ACLS Academy is an authorized American Heart Association (AHA) Aligned Training Center with three convenient locations in Massachusetts – Quincy, Bridgewater, and Newton Center. BLS, ACLS and PALS courses can be taken fully in person or in a blended learning format, which includes an online portion and a hands-on skills session. The online portion provides the flexibility of completing training at your own pace, either at work, home, or wherever you have Internet access. The hands-on portion includes a skills practice and testing session conducted in person with an AHA Instructor. Our instructors are medical professionals or highly trained individuals who will coach you through each step of the life-saving process. Upon completing any of the courses, you will receive a course completion card valid for two years.