Basic life support (BLS) training covers medical interventions, evaluation, and treatment for various emergencies, including obstetrics, trauma, and environmental hazards. EMTs, paramedics, and doctors receive BLS training to provide pre-hospital care and assist with advanced life support. The training also includes scene sizing, triage, and bodily substance isolation to ensure the safety of healthcare professionals.
Basic life support (BLS) training includes learning to provide medical interventions to maintain the airway, maintain circulation, perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), use an automated external defibrillator (AED), splint fractured bones, and spinal cord handling umbilical cord injuries. Evaluation of medical, cardiac and trauma patients; treatment of intoxication and overdose emergencies; management of diabetic emergencies; caring for patients with an altered mental status; and the management of soft tissue injuries are also covered in BLS training. Students in BLS training must learn to intervene in emergencies involving obstetrics and gynecology, severe allergic reactions, acute abdominal problems, and environmental emergencies. Other skills acquired in BLS training include learning to lift and move patients without causing injury, gathering a medical history, practicing general pharmacology, dealing with behavioral emergencies, responding to terrorism, and operating the various types of ambulances and emergency medical equipment.
BLS training differs slightly from place to place, but all students generally acquire the aforementioned skills to provide pre-hospital care to one of three types of patients: medical, cardiac, and trauma. Each broad area of training can be broken down into more specific areas. For example, training to deal with respiratory emergencies and maintain an airway involves learning to work with equipment such as airway adjuncts, a bag valve mask (BVM), suction equipment, and oxygen cylinders. It also involves learning about the dangers of suction, the potential dangers associated with using the nasopharyngeal airway, and the two maneuvers used to open a patient’s airway.
Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) of all levels, paramedics, paramedic specialists, and critical care paramedics often receive BLS training to be able to work in an ambulance, sometimes called a “platform.” These healthcare professionals not only learn basic life support, but they also learn how to assist with advanced life support (ALS). Among the skills this BLS training area covers are helping to prepare a patient for intubation, applying electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes, assisting with intravenous (IV) therapy, and assisting with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and positive airway pressure. in the bilevel airways (BIPAP). Depending on the ambulance company or hospital the doctor works for, the doctor may also receive training to operate and maintain the ambulance.
The fact that paramedics and paramedics can be targets of domestic violence and terrorism necessitates the need for training to perform what is known as scene sizing for their own safety. Environmental emergencies cannot be separated from training to recognize hazardous materials and natural hazards when working in areas of downed power lines, floods, fires and other hazardous conditions. Physicians are often trained to perform triage so that they can effectively deal with a multi-casualty incident, during which first responders must deviate from their normal procedures to tend to lives with the best chance of survival. Bodily substance isolation training is also emphasized in BLS training to help the clinician protect against the many illnesses to which healthcare workers are exposed.
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