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As a healthcare professional working in senior care, ACLS certification (online or otherwise) is highly beneficial. But what is more important than the certification itself is the understanding of how caring for seniors differs from caring for other age groups. Linda Brenner of Woodcrest Village, an assisted living community, explained the important differences between caring for seniors and other age groups.

Life Saving Procedures

When performing a life saving procedure, Brenner said the important thing to remember is that seniors have much more fragile bones than younger adults. For example, when performing CPR on a senior, the person performing the procedure needs to adjust the force of chest compressions on the patient to avoid unnecessary harm.

"Just be careful what you're doing," Brenner said. "Save the person but don't aggressively hurt him or her."

Do Not Resuscitate Orders

When caring for a child or an adult, in most cases, a healthcare professional is able to perform a life saving procedure immediately without a second thought. But when working in a nursing home or assisted living community, there is an additional consideration one must make before performing such a procedure – check for a DNR.

A patient who has signed a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order does not want any emergency lifesaving procedures performed on him or her in the event of cardiac arrest or other medical emergency. It is fairly common for senior patients to have DNRs.

Brenner said it is important for employees to have good communication skills in order to make sure in the event of a medical emergency that someone with a DNR is not resuscitated and that an individual without a DNR is cared for in a prompt manner.

"They need to be really careful and make sure that communication is good between the nurse and the aid to make sure the aid is not running in to save the resident when he or she doesn't want to be saved," Brenner said.

Other Benefits of Having ACLS Certification

Part of ACLS training involves learning how to properly identify stroke symptoms and provide initial care. This knowledge is especially crucial when working with seniors – according to the American Stroke Association, "the chance of having a stroke approximately doubles for each decade of life after age 55." The likelihood of encountering a stroke victim is higher when working strictly with seniors.

"What would you do in that scenario? How do you recognize the signs and symptoms? I think it's really important for people to know when residents are showing signs of a stroke," Brenner said.

About Health Ed Solutions ACLS Certification Online Courses

Health Ed Solutions provides the leading online resources for ACLS certification online courses and ACLS recertification online courses. HES also offers courses for CPR, first aid and AED training, as well as BLS certification.