Renew ACLS

[HinduDoc]

Does anyone know the best & cheapest way to renew ACLS?

thanks in advance

[DrSpeaksSoftly]

When I was at RUMC they offered courses for $5.

[DOC.p]

do you REALLY need it? like to continue rotations? mine expired this past august but i never renewed it and it's not that imperative for residency apps if you don't have it current because you'll get that done during your first week of intern year

[HinduDoc]

its completely useless but i got an email from AUA saying they wanted a copy of my new card since mine is expiring soon

makes no sense why AUA is the only med school that requires us to have this updated/renewed even though we dont need it until residency

[rubenmajor]

$5.00 for an ACLS class would be unheard of. I know that you can get them online, but that depends on whether or not your employer will accept the certification. EMS University has a program for ACLS. You could give that a shot or some other online program if you're in a hurry.

[megamoore]

Take my silly advice and DON'T DO IT ONLINE!!!! Assuming you take the American Heart Association online course you will only receive an incomplete certification. This entitles you to receive a full completion within 60 days(I think). You will learn a lot but you still have to do a 'skills assessment' in person with an approved instructor to complete the course. Your potential pitfalls are these:
1. You have to find testing/instructing center that is near to you depending where you are located

2. You have to find a date that works for you. If you're in metro areas like NYC 1 and 2 shouldn't be a problem.

3. PRAY that your tester is lenient!! Your instructor make or break you depending on his biases, teaching style, what he deems is 'must know' info etc.

If you take a course you will have the benefit of knowing what the instructor expects of you, their points of extra emphasis, 'pet peaves' and the setting will better prepare you to run a megacode. Besides, for 8 hours it won't take up too much of your time.

When you do the core cases online you run a megacode but it doesn't allow you to practice how to run your team. Online it's only two persons who you will direct from an interactive menu but in person you maybe with at least 4 other persons that you have to instruct. Some instructors evaluate you based on this too. When you complete the code online you are then given the option to submit your performance for evaluation or not. If you choose to submit and you fail (score <70) you will have to pass it twice (not consecutively) to advance to the next core case. If you fail again then you have to pass it 3 times. By the way, they seldom repeat the same scenario.

4. The average time to complete the online AHA approved course is 6hours(I was told) but the codes take place in real time and some of them can last 15min. Factor in repeats and 6hrs starts to look like 12. In person the instructor will 'advance time' to get to the critical teaching points in the 'decision trees'.

Your experience may differ but I advise against doing it online. I did it online and felt prepared (90% score for the online portion) for my skills test but when I did it my instructor didn't waste time in bursting my bubble. I believe he took pity on me and passed me.

[jesrmagna]

..........

[DrSpeaksSoftly]

do you REALLY need it? like to continue rotations? mine expired this past august but i never renewed it and it's not that imperative for residency apps if you don't have it current because you'll get that done during your first week of intern year

So far three of the hospitals I have rotated at required ACLS certification so in some cases it has nothing to do with AUA. If you are done rotating then no worries, you renew it at the beginning of your intern year free of charge.

[logik15]

do you REALLY need it? like to continue rotations? mine expired this past august but i never renewed it and it's not that imperative for residency apps if you don't have it current because you'll get that done during your first week of intern year

I actually spoke to some residents about this where I was interviewing. They recommended to me to get the ACLS certification renewed before residency started because some hospitals make you go through a 2 day course the week BEFORE residency starts, which takes away time for you to relax right before residency. I did mine at Wyckoff, it was a 1 day course and it was simple. There was also a discounted rate that the student reps got for us making it $65.

[Arkie, M.D.]

Haven't opened my email in many moons. Can someone tell me what the username should look like?