Online education and internet courses are the future of education. Today, entire college programs are done online and students are now able to earn degrees with minimal class room time. This is really great for those of us who are trying to balance family life, work, and school. However; as with many things, people have trouble with change. Employers and schools who remain in the education dark ages frown upon online BLS and ACLS programs. In some cases there is a legitimate concern for this kind of training, but health care providers need to take the blinder off and learn to separate the good from the bad.

The American Heart Association is the most widely recognized provider of BLS, ACLS, and PALS certification and is the leader in research for cardiovascular life support. The AHA themselves have a home study style CD-Rom BLS and ACLS course in which a provider can do 90% of the course work from there home or office at their own pace. Now here is where we separate the good from the bad: The other 10% of the training is the practical skills and must be done in class in order to receive a completion certificate. This means the provider gets both the academic portion of training and the practical portion as well. Hmmm…..sounds pretty effective if you ask me.

You can’t get more flexible then that. And in today’s world, health care professionals need flexibility. The AHA is not the only agency offering this type of training. Any legitimate agency that is offering accredited BLS, ACLS, and PALS will have a practical skills portion in addition to the online education. There are some hospitals that insist that there provider have NO portion of their training online, which is like burying you head in the sand hoping that life stays the same and nothing changes. That is just plain ignorance.

If you get training and get accredited certification what difference does it make? C’mon…wake up and smell the coffee people.

I don’t recommend online only courses for providers who have even a remote chance of having to perform. In reality, I don’t recommend online only life support classes at all. However, it all boils down to whatever the employer or school wants right? That’s exactly right. It’s going to take a little time, but in the near future, the two day ACLS and PALS classes are going to be history. I’ll be glad when it is.