ACLS vs. BLS: Which One Do You Need?
ACLS vs. BLS: What's the difference, and which one do you need? Basic Life Support (BLS) focuses on essential lifesaving skills like CPR and AED use, while Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) builds on those skills to manage complex cardiovascular emergencies. Your healthcare role and employer's requirements determine whether you need a BLS course, an ACLS course, or both.
This guide compares BLS and ACLS training, explains who may need each, and explores how they work together in emergency care.
Table of Contents
- What Is the Difference Between ACLS and BLS?
- Do You Need ACLS and BLS?
- How Do BLS and ACLS Skills Work Together?
- Choosing Between ACLS, BLS and PALS
- BLS vs. ACLS: Train Both with ACLS Medical Training
What Is the Difference Between ACLS and BLS?
So, are ACLS and BLS the same thing? If not, what are the differences between the two? Basic Life Support, or BLS, addresses the essential life-saving saving techniques for resuscitation of patients undergoing cardiac arrest or respiratory compromise. BLS techniques include CPR, AED usage, ventilation techniques and treatment of airway obstruction. For each of these techniques, the skills are adapted for adult, child and infant populations.
Advanced Cardiac Life Support, or ACLS, assumes that the clinician already knows the content covered by BLS certification and thus adds more complex techniques including ECG rhythm interpretation, advanced pharmacology, cardiac arrest algorithms, and management of special emergencies.
The following table outlines these and other differences between the two certifications.
| BLS | ACLS | |
|---|---|---|
| CPR | Yes | No* |
| AED | Yes | No* |
| Ventilation | Yes | No* |
| Airway Obstruction | No | Yes |
| ECG Interpretation | No | Yes |
| Advanced Pharmacology | No | Yes |
| Cardiac Arrest Algorithms | No | Yes |
| Cardioversion | No | Yes |
| Tachyarrhythmias | No | Yes |
| Bradycardia | No | Yes |
*While not covering these topics, ACLS assumes the knowledge of them.
Do You Need ACLS and BLS?
So, who needs BLS vs. ACLS, and who needs both? Providers with differing patient acuities and responsibilities maintain different combinations. For those requiring both, there are options for a BLS and ACLS bundle to save time and money.
BLS is generally required for all healthcare providers and first responders who regularly encounter patients. This includes everyone from medical assistants to physicians to lifeguards to physical therapists.
ACLS, on the other hand, is a certification for those working with patients in emergency, acute, and critical care settings. This includes those with increased registered nurse responsibilities, respiratory therapists, and MD’s and PA’s working in acute and critical care, as well as paramedics and EMTs.
In general, most providers who require ACLS will already need BLS since the skills of the latter are required for the former. See below for a more comprehensive list of providers who may need BLS, ACLS or both.
| BLS | ACLS | |
|---|---|---|
| Medical Assistants | Yes | No |
| Dental Staff | Yes | No |
| Outpatient Nurses | Yes | No |
| PT/OT | Yes | No |
| Lifeguards | Yes | No |
| Pharmacists | Yes | No |
| EMT | Yes | No |
| Paramedics | Yes | Yes |
| Acute Care RNs | Yes | Yes |
| ER/ICU RNs | Yes | Yes |
| ICU NP/PA’s | Yes | Yes |
| Cath Lab Staff | Yes | Yes |
| Respiratory Therapists | Yes | Yes |
| CRNA/Anesthesiologists | Yes | Yes |
How Do BLS and ACLS Skills Work Together?
So, how are these separate certifications of BLS and ACLS related? Both basic and advanced life support are intertwined in supporting the Chain of Survival to maximize patient outcomes during emergencies. BLS provides the foundation of essential life support techniques (CPR, AED, airway management) upon which ACLS builds the skills for complex cardiac conditions.
Additionally, providers with differing certifications work together at each stage of a patient encounter, tying together both BLS and ACLS techniques.
For example, a patient experiences a cardiac arrest at a dental office where staff trained in BLS begin providing compressions and setting up an AED. Paramedics are called and arrive, where they begin utilizing their ACLS training with advanced pharmacology, including IV epinephrine doses in tandem with CPR and defibrillation. Upon transfer to the ED and ICU, providers there utilize both BLS and ACLS to continue lifesaving measures. Following this, the patient regains a pulse, after which assessment and further ACLS algorithms are followed to stabilize the patient post-arrest.
Choosing Between ACLS, BLS and PALS
Selecting which certification you need is largely dependent on your role type and the patient population you work with; however, be sure to check your employer’s requirements for staff to ensure you are meeting the correct certification standards for employment. For those who need all three, our site conveniently provides a BLS, ACLS and PALS training bundle.
The following table synthesizes these considerations of patient population and patient acuity in a way that is easy to digest:
| Adult | Pediatric | |
|---|---|---|
| High Acuity | ACLS | PALS |
| Low Acuity | BLS | BLS |
BLS vs. ACLS: Train Both with ACLS Medical Training
In conclusion, BLS is a foundational certification with life-saving skills held by most healthcare providers, while ACLS is a certification reserved for those working in emergency and critical care settings.
For busy providers in the thick of patient care, considering what certifications you need to obtain or maintain can be the last thought on your mind due to the dizzying menu of training options. Thankfully, handling your certification doesn’t have to be complicated. ACLS Medical Training has simple, 100% online certification options in BLS and ACLS training, both alone and in combination. Enroll today!
