CPR Level C or Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers is one of the most popular programs at Saskatoon First Aid. It is one of the three advanced programs available, but is not considered an ALS (Advanced Life Support) program, like Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS).
Saskatoon First Aid is one of the most popular training providers of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training in the city. You can enroll in any of our programs by using the form below, sending an e-mail, or giving us a call. We also encourage prospective trainees to visit the Saskatoon First Aid training location in person if they want to sign up or learn about the programs we offer.
Basic Life Support: Introduction to Advanced CPR
CPR Level C focuses on advanced CPR for people who are allied health workers or work in medical set ups and deal with cardiorespiratory emergencies. It differs from CPR Level A and B, which focus on basic CPR for non-medical emergencies and non-medical rescuers.
The core curriculum introduces the medical set-up to trainees, specifically the equipment and medications readily available in a health care facility to the responder. We teach trainees how to use defibrillators and bag valve masks on adult and pediatric victims, aside from basics of compressions and mouth-to-mouth rescue breaths.
Curriculum excerpts:
- 2010 CPR Guidelines from the Heart and Stroke Foundation
- Basics – compressions, ventilation, and defibrillation
- Management of choking adults and children
BLS training certificate:
To receive a BLS training certificate, the student has to have complete attendance and a passing grade on both the written and skills tests. We mail permanent credentials to the student within the next few days of passing the tests; for the mean time, they are granted temporary credentials that will also be accepted the same way the permanent ones will.
Training certificates that we award students are only valid for a total of 36 months; they are renewable via refresher courses for BLS for HCPs (CPR Level C). After taking a refresher course, the student has to take another set of certification tests which will validate the credentials for another three years.
Getting started with training: Cardiac drugs
When you sign up for advanced training classes, you will be introduced to a variety of cardiac drugs used as maintenance medications or used during a code/cardiac emergency.
Major categories:
- Anticoagulants – colloquially called “blood thinners” though they don’t really thin blood out, they just decrease the clotting ability of blood
- Anti-platelets – Helps prevent the formation of blood clots by preventing platelets from sticking together
- ACE inhibitors – Decreases resistance to blood circulation by decreasing levels of angiotensin II
- ARBs – Decreases resistance to blood circulation by blocking receptors of angiontensin II
- Beta-blockers – Decreases heart rate and cardiac output, which decreases blood pressure and the stress on the heart
- Calcium-channel blockers – By slowing the movement of calcium into the cardiac cells, it decreases the contractility of the heart
- Diuretics – Promotes fluid loss via urination to decrease blood volume and therefore blood pressure