What medical professionals need an ACLS provider card?

Advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) can be defined in many ways: an extension of basic life support (BLS), specialized lifesaving skills and techniques, or a continuation of the resuscitation process. A good basic definition of ACLS could be:

A systematic approach to providing advanced care to victims who have suffered a cardiac arrest or are suffering from several other specific medical emergencies.

But ACLS can also be defined one more way: essential lifesaving knowledge that is considered a professional responsibility. ACLS knowledge and an ACLS provider card is a requirement for many medical professionals. BLS skills and certification are the first step when responding to a cardiac arrest or to other medical emergencies. But BLS is almost always a temporizing measure; it can only keep the victim alive until sophisticated help arrives or transport to a hospital is possible.

ACLS is needed to make sure the resuscitation is successful and unlike BLS, ACLS – for many reasons – can only be provided by medical professionals. ACLS can only be used by medical professionals because it involves administering IV drugs, performing invasive maneuvers, administering oxygen, using a defibrillator, etc.

ACLS can only be used by medical professionals because it requires the responder to recognize and treat a cardiac arrest (as does BLS), but it also requires a professional who can recognize and treat acute coronary syndromes, arrhythmias, and cardiac arrest due to asthma, drug overdose, trauma, and many other conditions.

So what medical professionals need an ACLS provider card? Physicians and registered nurses may need an ACLS provider card, depending on their area of specialty and where they work. An ACLS provider card is almost without exception a requirement for nurses who work in an emergency room, intensive care unit, operating room, recovery room, or special procedure unit. Physicians who work in these areas are often required to have an ACLS provider card and paramedics and other emergency personnel are, as well.

Of course, the ACLS skills and knowledge would be useful for almost any medical professional. But because of the requirements of ACLS, an ACLS provider card is limited to licensed professionals such as physicians, nurses, etc., or to people who may work under the direct supervision of a licensed person, e.g., a paramedic.

Also, ACLS information (as mentioned before) would be useful for almost any medical professional, but given the time and expense involved in obtaining an ACLS provider card and the complexity of ACLS curriculum, only those professionals who might realistically need to use ACLS in their practice really need to make the effort to obtain an ACLS provider card.

It is unlikely that nurses and physicians working in a long-term care facility would ever need to use ACLS, but it is certain medical professionals working an emergency room, intensive care unit, etc. will need to use ACLS. So if you are a medical professional and you wonder whether or not you need an ACLS provider card - you probably do.

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