Your BLS Certification: A Closer Look at the Process
BLS stands for Basic Life Support and is a certification that you will need if you work in the medical field. If your BLS certification has expired, it’s important to get recertified as soon as possible. In this article, we’ll go over what you need to do to recertify your BLS certificate!
If you are a recruiter, you may also want your candidates to take a basic skills exam; this will give you a broader understanding of the skills of those who could make up your team.
Why recertify your BLS certification
When you receive your BLS certification, it is good for a certain period of time. Once the time has elapsed, you will need to recertify if you wish to maintain access to patients and continue working in this field. Otherwise, you could be putting lives at risk! If your current cert expires soon or already has expired (you can check by looking up the expiration date on your card), there are some things that must take place before you’re allowed back into patient rooms.
First things first: always confirm with facility policy as each hospital/clinic should have its own unique requirements when it comes to getting re-certified.
Secondly, you will need to complete a course and pass an exam in order to recertify your BLS. A new certification period is not automatic: it doesn’t simply start when the old one expires. You must go through this process again by taking a training class or online program and passing an assessment test before being allowed back into patient rooms.
When do I have to recertify?
Most certifications are valid for two years, though some may only be good for six months depending on their date of issue (month/year). It’s important that you check with facility policy beforehand as there might be different rules regarding how long your current card has been expired, if at all. If in doubt, don’t take any chances and get recertified as soon as possible to make sure you can continue working. Your facility will most likely have a deadline for doing BLS recertification, which is usually six months from the date of expiration. If this doesn’t happen and it’s been more than half a year since the old certification expired, there’s no need to panic: just check with them about what must be done in order to get re-certified again!
The process of recertifying your BLS certification
Once you’ve confirmed that it’s time to get re-certified, the process should be relatively simple. You’ll have a few things to do before being allowed back into patient rooms:
- Take an approved training course and pass a test with at least 85% accuracy. This can come in many different forms but most often takes the form of an online program or class taught by your facility. Many programs are self-paced so if you’re short on time, this is one way around it! Another alternative might be attending classes offered by other organizations such as community colleges/universities, local hospitals, etc.
- If there was any sort of critical incident during your previous certification period (e.g., the wrong dosage administered), you will also need to get your hands on a letter of clearance from the facility and/or state where you did your original training. This is essentially just an official document which states that there were no serious incidents during this certification period so therefore, it’s safe for them to allow you back inpatient rooms.
- If there was any sort of action taken by the regulatory board (e.g., suspension), clearances may be required depending on what exactly happened, how long ago it took place, and whether or not they still keep records about the said incident(s).
- Once all these steps have been completed successfully, congratulations! You’re officially BLS recertified!
How long does it take to recertify your BLS certificate
Don’t worry, it’s not too long! As mentioned previously, you will have a few tasks to complete before re-qualifying for BLS certification. The average time taken is around a month or two but it can be as quick as about a week or last up to three months depending on the facility’s requirements and how well your training course went.
In order to make everything go smoothly from start to finish, always confirm beforehand what must take place in order for you to recertify. Don’t wait until the actual deadline because this could result in penalties such as being suspended/fired from work!
Recertifying your BLS certification isn’t a requirement, but it does help you stay up to date on the latest guidelines and make sure that you’re always qualified for CPR. Doing so also helps protect yourself from liability should there be an issue in which someone needs CPR assistance while you are present or if they were receiving care from you at the time of their emergency event. With so much information out there about how important Basic Life Support (BLS) certification is, we hope these facts have helped clarify some misconceptions about what’s involved in getting re-certified.
