15% Of ACLS, PALS, NRP, and BLS - Click Here

While summer break means fun, sun and relaxation for many, it often marks the time when high school graduates, college students and others in seasonal professions like teaching and ski instruction seek summertime employment. However, unbeknownst to many jobseekers, a basic life support (BLS) certification is encouraged—and in some cases, required—for a number of popular summer jobs.

The BLS certification is designed to provide a wide variety of healthcare professionals and laypeople the ability to recognize several life-threatening emergencies, provide CPR, use an automated external defibrillator (AED) and relieve choking in a safe, timely and effective manner. These skills and abilities are critical for a number of popular summer jobs, including: 

Lifeguard: This exciting position helps people safely enjoy the water at pools, beaches, lakes or water parks. When working as part of a team with a staff of lifeguards, it’s critical that each team member understands basic life support protocol and knows how to respond in emergency situations to ensure for optimal patient outcomes. Lifeguards are required to complete specialized lifeguard training courses in addition to those that teach infant and child CPR, adult CPR and general first aid protocol.

Nanny/Babysitter: When schools let out for summer, the demand for nannies and babysitters rises significantly, and the flexibility of these positions attracts many summertime job seekers. Childcare comes with tremendous responsibility and basic life support skills are generally required or strongly recommended for applicants. In fact, parents hiring for childcare providers will often require BLS training to ensure that the people caring for their kids have the skills and knowledge to effectively perform infant CPR and child CPR.

Camp Counselor: While camps may vary in audience, length and format, including day-long, week-long and sleep-away camps for children and adults alike, one thing remains consistent—camp counselors must have the skills and training to provide basic life support to campers. Most camps involve sports, games or other activities in which injuries can be common, and a team of trained camp counselors that understands infant, child and adult CPR and other first aid techniques is critical to ensuring campers stay safe and have fun.

Many applicants will obtain a BLS certification to meet stated job requirements and bolster their candidacies for the summertime positions listed above. Others, however, may believe knowledge of basic life support techniques makes them better employees through the ability effectively respond to emergency situations that may arise on the job. Regardless of the motivator, savvy summertime jobseekers should consider the taking a basic life support course. Increasingly convenient BLS course formats allow healthcare professionals and laypeople alike to get their BLS certification online or through in-person BLS training courses.

View more information about Health Ed Solutions’ BLS course.

The information included in this article is based on the 2020 guidelines for CPR, first aid and advanced cardiovascular care. Read more about how the 2020 guidelines impact BLS classes.