What would you do if you were taking a walk in the park one day and suddenly someone collapsed a few feet away from you? Would you rush and call 911? Would you panic and run to look for help? Or would you continue your walk and pretend like someone else is going to help them? These are the exact situations that the BLS Health Science program prepares you for.
BLS stands for Basic Life Support and is a certification program that all Health Science II students are required to take. This program is important for any students that are aiming to follow a career in healthcare as it teaches you essential life skills for sudden emergencies not only in a hospital but in everyday life. Whether a person goes into cardiac arrest, starts choking, or even experiences a sudden loss of consciousness, BLS skills are often the first skills people turn to before medical professionals arrive.
The BLS program teaches students life saving skills such as CPR, AED use, and how to see warning signs before a life threatening emergency, such as heart attacks and cardiac arrest. In this program, students practice proper hand placement, compression depth, and timing of CPR. With the use of practice manikins students are able to ensure that their technique is accurate and will be effective in any real life situation. Students also learn the proper way to operate an AED, which is a device that delivers an electrical shock to the heart to restore it’s natural rhythm. Being able to use these tools and skills correctly can increase an individuals chance of survival dramatically.
Along with hands-on practice, students also learn how to assess their surrounds, check for responsiveness, and even determine if a situation is safe to approach. By following this step by step process it allows anyone responding to an emergency to stay calm as they would know exactly what to do in the moment. Communication is also a big component of the program, not just between the victim and yourself but with other people around you as well.
Another important element of the program is teamwork. In many emergency situations more than one person is required, meaning that they must work together to keep up with compressions as well as delivering rescue breaths at appropriate times. During the program students learn how to work together by switching roles in a fake emergency situation, allowing students to understand the importance of communication and teamwork in any situation.
Overall the BLS Health Science program is more than just a certification for many students, but instead a program that helps students build their confidence, which will help them act when it matters the most. Emergencies do not wait for us and being able to respond quickly could save someones life.
“BLS is not only a good skill to have but it is also required for all students who want to enter the healthcare field”
