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American Heart Association Essential Stroke Life Support®
The American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association, is excited to announce the launch of a new stroke eLearning course. Designed to enhance stroke recognition skills and knowledge, the course will boost the competencies of healthcare professionals who may not manage stroke patients on a regular basis.
The course – Essential Stroke Life Support® (ESLS®) – was developed in conjunction with The University of Miami’s Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation in Medical Education and Laerdal Medical. ESLS will provide important, basic instruction required to aid in early recognition and management for patients with stroke.
With the goal of reaching an important target audience for stroke detection, ESLS is ideal for basic healthcare providers who may not treat or manage patients with stroke as part of their normal scope of practice. This includes nurses who do not manage stroke patients on a regular basis and for the larger population of prehospital providers such as EMTs who do not have or require the advanced skills of paramedics. This course is relevant for home health nursing providers, medical assistants, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and respiratory therapists.
Upon completion of this course, learners will be able to:
- Describe why early treatment of stroke may result in a marked reduction in risk of disability
- Identify the 5 main stroke syndromes and relate them to pathophysiology and clinical signs
- Perform a focused evaluation to identify stroke and its location
- Define the initial management of patients with ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes
- Describe the principles of prehospital stroke management that make up the current standard of care
- Determine when to call a stroke alert and quickly transport the patient to the nearest appropriate facility
- Communicate the patient’s symptoms, the time of symptom onset, and the stroke screening exam results clearly and succinctly to hospital personnel
Course Format
The Essential Stroke Life Support (ESLS) Online Provider Course is a self-directed eLearning course designed to teach healthcare providers knowledge for faster stroke recognition and triage for patients that may present outside of a more advanced stroke care setting. AHA eLearning courses give students the flexibility to learn at their own pace and on their own schedule, anywhere and anytime an internet connection is available. eLearning courses are fully self-directed, and do not require a separate skills testing check-off.
Some features of this evidence-based, online-only course include:
- an adaptive learning online component where learners follow a continuously adapting learning path that is personalized by their own inputs, for not only their performance, but also their self-reported confidence levels.
- virtual patient case simulations that include conducting a primary survey of the patient, a stroke assessment, SAMPLE History, and early interventions. The virtual simulations serve as the skills component for this course.
The course will offer CE to physicians (AMA), nurses (ANCC), EMS (CAPCE), and respiratory therapists (AARC). ESLS does not have an in-person skills component. A course completion certificate will be issued upon successful completion of the online course. The course and required virtual patient cases will take approximately 2.5 hours to complete.
Purchase Options
The digital materials for the ESLS eLearning Provider Course including the online course and Provider eBook can be purchased on the AHA Professional Education Hub(link opens in new window)(link opens in new window).
The print version of the ESLS Reference Card is available to also available for purchase on ShopCPR(link opens in new window)(link opens in new window).