ACLS as nursing student and soon to be EMT student

[Kaleb Griffin]

Hello everyone,

I am contemplating on whether to take an ACLS course this Summer, or to wait until the summer that I graduate. I am 2 finals away from being finished with my junior year of my BSN program. I just took a dysrhythmias course this semester and it was a GREAT course going over every type of dysrhythmia out there. We also had to do a simulation with this course. We were given scenarios and views of the monitor and we would have to determine out interventions based on that info, and we were taught the common meds that would be used for those rhythms along with their dosages.

So, with that course I feel like I would be more qualified than many other initial ACLS cert students, and think I would pass the written test. As for the megacode, I am pretty scared of it. I have heard that some instructors are harsh and have a pass/fail method; while others spoon feed you and almost guarantee that you pass like BLS. I get nervous in front of people, and feel like I would go blank during the megacode even after memorizing the algorithms.

 

[Akulahawk]

For ACLS, I would wait until you're about 1 semester away from graduation before you take the course. The reason for this is actually very simple. When it's time to renew, you should be reasonably close to needing to renew your license. This should give you a few "extra" contact hours that you might need to renew your license. The other reason I suggest you wait until then (at the minimum) is that you won't be able to "use" the education much until you have your license.

In my own particular case, I took ACLS during the summer between my 2nd and 3rd semesters but I didn't need it for nursing school, I needed it as part of my Paramedic license renewal. I'm now due to renew in a few more months and I'm looking forward to it because my employer will be covering that cost. The megacode isn't all that hard, but make sure you're able to follow the algorithms. Know what's shockable, what's not shockable, and expect rhythm changes fairly frequently.