CPR, BLS, and ACLS: A Detailed Review of Techniques and Importance

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Basic Life Support (BLS), and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). It details the indications for CPR, including cardiac and respiratory arrest, and outlines the main stages of CPR, focusing on airway management, breathing, circulation, and differential diagnosis. The report also highlights the differences between pediatric and adult CPR techniques, emphasizing the importance of CPR in nursing practice for improving patient outcomes. It concludes by stressing the necessity for nurses to possess appropriate CPR skills for effective BLS and ACLS implementation in emergency situations. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and solved assignments for students.

CARDIOPULMONARY
RESUSCITATION
(CPR)

CPR
CPR or the cardiopulmonary
resuscitation is a procedure
performed by trained
healthcare professionals when
an adult, children or infants
have stopped breathing or the
heart has stopped functioning
so that breathing and
circulation is maintained back
to normal (Abella, 2013).
ACLS
The ACLS or the advanced
cardiac life support is a
medical procedure in
which the basic life support
procedure is augmented by
the drug administration,
defibrillation, controlling
the cardiac arrhythmias
and use of ventilation
equipments (Abella, 2013).
BLS
The BLS or the basic life
support is defined as the
procedure that helps to
maintain the airway patency
and support the breathing and
circulation of blood without
use of any equipment except a
protective device on the
patients whose heart has
stopped beating (Abella,
2013).

INDICATIONS FOR CPR
The CPR is a combination of rescue breathing including mouth-to
mouth, chest compressions and equipment assisted techniques
during an emergency when the person is not breathing or the
heart has stopped beating. CPR helps in restoring the blood
circulation of oxygenated blood to brain and other vital organs.
Some of the indications for need of CPR are as follows:
 Cardiac Arrest: Ventricular fibrillation, Asystole, Pulseless
electric activity
 Respiratory Arrest: Drowning, smoke inhalation, stroke, drug
overdose, suffocation and coma

STAGES OF CPR
The main stages of CPR includes following steps:
 Airways: Ensuring of open airways by preventing falling back
of the tongue, and tracheal intubation.
 Breathing: To initiate the artificial ventilation of the lungs
 Circulation: Restoration of the circulation by external cardiac
massage
 Differentiation: To perform quickly the differential diagnosis
of the cardiac arrest with the use of different medications and
electric defibrillation (Elazazay, Abdelazez, & Elsaie, 2012)

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PEDIATRIC AND ADULT
CPR
PAEDIATRIC CPR ADULT CPR
Do not shake the infant at all before
initiating the CPR. Slightly tap or flick the
soles of the baby’s feet to know the
responsiveness of the baby.
Before initiating the CPR, tap or shake the
adult
To check the airway or breathing pattern
of the baby slightly tilt the head and lift
the chin and listen to the breathing pattern
carefully.
First check the pulse rate, listen to the
breathing and check the heartbeat.
The pattern is same as adult but if the
child is less than a year then with mouth
both nose and mouth of the child is closed.
In the adults the nose is shut and mouth is
used to seal the mouth of the person and
push air
Only one hand is used for chest
compression (Nori et al., 2012)
Both the hands are used for the chest
compression (Nori et al., 2012)

IMPORTANCE OF CPR IN NURSING
PRACTICE
A poor quality of CPR intervention is a preventable harm. In healthcare setting, the performance
variability of the clinicians has highly affected the ability to reduce the complications in
healthcare and there has been standardized approach taken to improve the better outcome of
the patient. The use of such quality improvement is on a rise and approach has shown an
optimized outcome on various occasions. Despite of such evidences available, the health care
organization uses these techniques for cardiac arrest on regular basis by monitoring the
quality of CPR and the outcomes achieved (Packer, Freeman and Kaufman, 2014).
The unacceptable disparity still remains in the resuscitation quality along with the opportunities
available to save more such people live. The infant, children and adults have various needs in
terms of CPR. The makeup, bone structure, physiology and the danger faced by the children
are quite different from adults and therefore the CPR techniques used for them are different
as well. The bones of children are more flexible as compare to adults and it is more likely get
bend rather than break as it happens in adults. Majority of the techniques used for the
children of one to eight years are similar to that of the techniques used for adults (Nambiar,
Nedungalaparambil, & Aslesh, 2016)

CONCLUSION
The current study finds the necessity of
knowing appropriately the CPR
techniques and skills for the facilitation
of BLS and ACLS in emergency
situation by the nurses.

REFERENCES
 Abella, B. S. (2013). The importance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation
quality. Current opinion in critical care, 19(3), 175-180.
 Elazazay, H. M., Abdelazez, A. L., & Elsaie, O. A. (2012). Effect of
cardiopulmonary resuscitation training program on nurses knowledge and
practice. Life Sci J, 9(4), 3494-3503
 Nambiar, M., Nedungalaparambil, N. M., & Aslesh, O. P. (2016). Is current
training in basic and advanced cardiac life support (BLS & ACLS) effective? A
study of BLS & ACLS knowledge amongst healthcare professionals of North-
Kerala. World journal of emergency medicine, 7(4), 263.
 Nori, J. M., Saghafinia, M., Motamedi, M. K., & Hosseini, S. K. (2012). CPR
training for nurses: how often is it necessary?. Iranian Red Crescent Medical
Journal, 14(2), 104.
 Packer, R. A., Freeman, G. A., & Kaufman, C. L. (2014). U.S. Patent No.
8,738,129. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.