I finished a 2-day Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) class today which was really great! It basically incorporates Basic Life Support (which is essentially means CPR) and takes it one step further and teaches you what to do in an arrest situations: how to read a heart rhythm, how to treat said rhythm, when to shock, when not to shock, when to give meds, what meds to give, etc. Like a BLS class there's a written component and a demonstration. The demonstration part was kind of intense. Its one thing to read a scenario and decide what action to take based on multiple choice answers. Its completely different when you're given a simulation patient who can talk, breath, provide vitals, is crashing, and you have a team of 3-4 people just waiting for you to give them orders. Its only a simulation, but it still kinda gets your pumped up and makes you nervous. Plus, its not like ACLS is basic stuff; there is a ton of info to know like which drugs to give when, what doses to give in the various situations, when you can and cant shock, at what intensity do you shock, what if you start in one rhythm and your patient decompensates into something worse, what do you do then, etc etc. So you have to keep it all straight. If you dont, your already crashing patient will die. Like I said - intense. But it was really good, really interesting. Now I can put together all the stuff I learned in my EKG class and the cardiac drug class and know how to treat the various rhythms.
...but, as awesome as this class was and no matter how well you think you know your stuff, you'll never really know till you put it to use. And of course you only get better at it with practice. ...so, I kinda want a code situation to happen so that I can see just how prepared I am... As long as I'm certified though, I essentially could run a code! Pretty exciting!! :)
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