Choosing the Best American Heart Association Advanced Cardiac Life Support course for ACLS certification should be easy, but like all things in life, following certain rules can improve your chances. Read on to learn 4 tips to keep in mind when assessing a company for ACLS certification.
4 Tips To Consider With Your ACLS Certification Company
1. Is the company an American Heart Association Training Center or simply a training site?
The American Heart Association accredits training centers through a process of auditing and surveys. Once a training center has been fully accredited it can choose to supervise training sites which it must in turn audit and review. As you can imagine, the accredited training center—being closer to the American Heart Association and its auditing and review process—tends to be the larger and more procedurally bound organization. As a result, the end product tends to be more faithfully executed with regard to the program standards.
2.What are the instructor-to-student ratios?
Small class sizes and instructor-to-student ratios are a must when assessing a company to take your ACLS class with. The American Heart Association typically mandates a ratio that should not exceed eight students per instructor; obviously this is something you should ask about as an advanced life support course is all about hands-on learning! Too many students inevitably means somebody is sitting out during the simulations.
3. Does the company offer online courses?
The advanced cardiac life support online course can be helpful for students short on time. We tend to see a lot of working professionals trying out this option at least once. It’s important to know that the interface for this course is much like a video game, so if that’s not your bag we recommend in-class learning. Also, if you’re a student who prefers to ask questions and enjoys a good dialogue with your instructor, the in-person advanced cardiac life support class at Project Heartbeat is the way to go.
4. Does the ACLS certification course sound too good to be true?
Be worried if the deal sounds too good to be true. Every semester we get approached by graduating nursing schools telling us that someplace (Cheat’em and Street’em) is offering every possible certification they can imagine in eight hours for $199. This is exactly what happened to my last graduate student. Her class was offered this exact deal and shortly thereafter the company was investigated by the American Heart Association and closed down.
The biggest issue with this type of course is that it’s impossible to learn and retain the volume of information presented in these certifications if you don’t get a chance to sleep on it. It’s well known that the brain can only absorb so much at a time; then we need to put the information away for a while and come back to it.
Don’t fall for this type of scam. It may help to pad the resume, but won’t help if the interview you ultimately land focuses on information presented in an American Heart Association course.
Hopefully this information helps you find the right company and the right course for you to certify yourself in American Heart Association advanced cardiac life support. At Project Heartbeat we pride ourselves in exceeding all of these standards, every student, everyday and every time. Read about our ACLS certification offerings, or contact us to discuss your needs.