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Basic Life Support (BLS) - 2020 CPR & ECC Guidelines

The goal of the BLS Course is to train participants to save the lives of victims in cardiac arrest through high-quality CPR. The AHA designed the BLS Course to teach healthcare professionals how to perform high-quality CPR individually or as part of a team. BLS skills are applicable to any healthcare setting. BLS students will learn rescue techniques for adult, children, and infants.

Course Learning Objectives

After successfully completing the BLS Course, students should be able to
•Describe the importance of high-quality CPR and its impact on survival
•Describe all of the steps of the Chains of Survival and apply the BLS concepts of the Chains of Survival
•Recognize the signs of someone needing CPR
•Perform high-quality CPR for adults, children, and infants
•Describe the importance of early use of an AED and demonstrate its use
•Provide effective ventilation by using a barrier device
•Describe the importance of teams in multirescuer resuscitation and perform as an effective
team member during multirescuer CPR
•Describe the technique for relief of foreign-body airway obstruction (choking) for an adult, a child, and aninfant

Course Intended Audience

This course is designed for healthcare providers and trained first responders who provide care to patients in a wide variety of settings or by those in a healthcare training program.