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Being able to save a life is a major reason for you to know about care certificate basic life support. The certificate is evidence to your employer that you have undergone training and passed the assessment in basic life support. It is a pity that less than 50% of nurses have this knowledge

Nurses who take care of the elderly, as well as any group susceptible to cardiac arrest, need to know about care certificate basic life support and relevant guidelines. These guidelines make up the procedure to follow when you have to provide basic life support to one of the people under your care or anyone in a situation that may require basic life support.
The guidelines are easily remembered by DR ABC. These represent Danger, Response, Airways, Breathing Circulation. Let us take a closer look at them.

Danger

The first concern is the safety of the helper. You need to look around and make an assessment of the situation to ensure there is no danger to your safety. Danger may be present in different ways. In the hospital, cutting instruments, bedside tables, or lamps can be some of the dangers you may encounter. Outside, the threats are equally varied depending on where the patient is located.

The nurse needs to avert any threat to their safety as well as the safety of the victim. Sometimes it may be necessary to move the victim to a safer place or change the position if they are in a precarious position.

Response

The next step is to check for a response. This can be done verbally as you are at a distance from the patient to ensure that the patient is not startled. Ensure the victim can hear you as you shout “hello, are you okay?” ‘Can you hear me? Try to get a response by gently shaking them in case they may be asleep. If there’s no response, then the victim is unconscious.

Once you have established the patient is unconscious, call out for help if there are people nearby. It is much easier to provide the right care if you are not alone.

Airway

Inspect the airway for any obstruction. This involves careful tilting of the head to ensure the airway can be inspected but at the same time ensuring that there is no damage to the spine. In the hospital, if it is established that there is an obstruction you can deal with it using equipment that you will learn how to use in your training.

Outside the hospital, the nurse may need to carefully remove the obstruction to the airway. If this is not possible, then steps will need to be taken to create artificial ventilation. This is another procedure that will be taught in the training.

Breathing

If the patient is not breathing, then you should also check the pulse to see if circulation is going on. Step 4 and 5 will be performed concurrently. Despite a nurse's training, basic life support is only intended to keep the patient’s circulation and breathing going until the paramedics can come in with the right equipment to resuscitate the victim. It is, therefore, a matter of urgency that the nurse calls in the cardiac arrest unit.

Within the hospital, however, a nurse should have access to a defibrillator which will be used to resuscitate the patient’s heart. For the breathing, a face mask should be used to breathe air into the patient’s lungs. Alternatively, there should be an oxygen machine that will provide high flow oxygen to the patient.

Circulation
An important part of this training is to buy time as the paramedics arrive. The nurse will first have to check for signs of a pulse using the carotid artery. If after 10 seconds there’s no sign, manual chest pumps will have to be performed. This is if there is no defibrillator available. The use of a defibrillator is more effective since it can help to restart the heart. According to research, chances of survival are higher if an external defibrillator is used.
It is standard procedure to continue with resuscitation until the heart begins to beat again or until the paramedics arrive to take over. It is better if the nurse is not alone because if they get exhausted, the other person can take over the resuscitation effort.

This training is vital for every medical person but most especially people who are primary caregivers for the elderly and other people at risk of cardiac arrest. Regular refresher training even after receiving a certificate is necessary to ensure the procedure becomes second nature.

These guidelines if performed in the exact order increase the chance of survival of a cardiac arrest victim. There’s more that a nurse can learn as part of the basic life support training.