Preface

The intention of this course is to offer a broad base of information to the potential healthcare provider regarding the basics of Basic Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, and Advanced Trauma Life Support. Nearly every healthcare provider will face having to care for the critically-ill or critically-injured patient and will need to know how best to stabilize these types of patients so they can receive definitive care.

The first chapter will be an intensive discussion of the assessment of the unconscious patient. These patients represent a unique challenge to the healthcare provider as they cannot verbally relay any symptoms and most are seriously ill, requiring urgent evaluation and management.

In chapter two, there will be a thorough discussion of Basic Life Support for Adults. While Basic Life Support is intended to be used by anyone, there are unique aspects to the provision of this type of vital patient care that are different when a skilled healthcare provider delivers the service as opposed to a lay person.

The third chapter of the course will be a discussion of the Basic Life Support protocols for infants and children. Infants and children have cardiac arrests for different reasons than in adults but still require CPR during an arrest situation. The protocols to be followed by the lay person and healthcare provider alike will be included in this chapter.

In chapter four, the focus of the discussion will be on how the automated external defibrillator works and how it is best put into use in the field. The student will learn how the AED has the potential to save many lives because it quickly restores the rhythm of an adult or child with a non-survivable rhythm strip.

Chapter five of the course is intended to be an introduction into the rhythms seen in Advanced Cardiac Life Support. Each rhythm has unique features that can be identified by the healthcare provider, setting the pace for intervention by the ACLS team.

The algorithms used in the adult patient with an abnormal rhythm or who is in a cardiac arrest situation will be the main topic of discussion in the sixth chapter of the course. Each rhythm and clinical situation has a specific algorithm to follow. The intricacies of these algorithms as they apply to different arrest situations will be covered in that chapter as they apply to the patient with an arrhythmia or who has suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest.

The seventh chapter of the course will be a discussion of the medications used in cardiac arrest situations and in treating arrhythmias. The purposes and dosages of the medications will be

covered as part of understanding how they are put into use in various arrhythmia and arrest situations.

The eighth chapter of the course is intended to be an introduction to the basics of pediatric advanced life support or PALS. Children have different common rhythm disturbances and suffer from arrests for very different reasons than adults and require a different approach than is seen in adults who have an arrest situation.

In the ninth chapter of the course, prehospital trauma assessment and management will be discussed. The prehospital rescuer is in a special situation of being able to have a positive impact on the survival of the critically-injured patient and there are protocols for managing these patients that will be the focus of this chapter.

The tenth chapter of the course will include a thorough discussion of Advanced Trauma Life Support or ATLS for adults. Trauma patients can have a variety of injuries and often require intense resuscitation soon after being injured if they are to survive.

The eleventh chapter of the course involves information related to the trauma situations seen in pediatric patients. Pediatric patients are highly likely to be multiply traumatized in an accident or fall and usually require evaluation and treatment of more than one body area after they become injured.