10 Important Steps You Should Not Forget When Performing BLS

We never know when emergency cases would appear. You might be instances when someone is faced with a life-threatening emergency that needs immediate medical help. However, you are not trained properly or professionally to assist the person. You cannot just wait and see life flash before your eyes. In that case, better find someone who can perform BLS or Basic Life Support immediately. Basic Life Support or BLS refers to the medical term which deals with knowing the medical care to perform in order to sustain a life while waiting for immediate care from professionals to come. In performing this kind of procedures in Chicagoland, only those who had training such as BLS Certification Chicago are qualified to administer proper procedures to ensure the patients’ safety since it requires skills and knowledge.

In addition, in case life-threatening situations arises, aside from physical skills, critical thinking and problem solving skills are necessary for providing support to deliver the best care possible and improve patients’ condition. As a BLS provider, you must always be prepared to respond quickly and appropriately. ​

Before performing BLS, the three main components such as circulation, airway, and breathing must be checked .For instance, when someone experiences a medical emergency, an assessment should be done as soon as possible to determine if BLS is necessary. In order to do so, there are important steps that you should not forget when performing BLS: 

Step 1: Assess

Before performing Basic life support, you should check the safety of the place. Then assess the condition of the patient.

Step 2: Response

If in case the patient did not respond, seek for professional medical help. Some definitive signs that the patient is dealing with a medical emergency are difficulty in speaking and breathing.

Step 3: Airway

Check if the patient's airway is clear. Ensure that there is no blockage by their tongue that can prevent the patient from breathing properly.

Step 4 Breathing

Check if the patient is breathing properly. In doing so, observe if there is any effort from the patient to breathe or movements from the chest. You should assess for normal breathing for a few seconds.

Step 5 Recovery position

Once you have assured the patient is breathing, put him/her in the recovery position.

Step 6 Call emergency hotlines

If breathing is absent you should call for the emergency services.

Step 7 Begin chest compressions

Once you have called for support, you should begin chest compressions.

Step 8 Rescue Breaths and Compressions

If the patient has abnormal breathing, start to give a combination of rescue breaths and chest compressions. While administering safety procedures, watch the chest to check that it rises and falls with the breath. Once the breaths are given, return to giving chest compressions.  

Step 9 Ask for assistance

If there is anyone who can assist, you should share out the work. One of you should perform the breaths and the other the compressions. You may swap when you feel tired.

Step 10 Repetition

Continue the cycle of rescue breaths and chest compressions 'til further help arrives. Wait for the patient to regain consciousness, or until you can no longer continue physically.

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You’ll never know when would the situation calls for you to perform BLS, but one thing is for sure, you can always prepare yourself if the circumstance arrives. Be trained, be skilled, be knowledgeable, be certified with your BLS Certification Chicago at CPR Associates Inc. ​