CHANDIGARH, 20 .07.22-Basic Life Support (BLS) for healthcare professionals trains participants to promptly recognize several life-threatening emergencies, give high-quality CPR, deliver appropriate ventilations and provide early use of defibrillator. The more people are trained in BLS in the community, the higher are the chances for bystander resuscitation to be commenced in a real-life emergency.

Efficient education of lay people in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is currently considered as a major determinant of survival in an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and set as a “primary educational goal in resuscitation”.

In the case of an emergency, fast and structured patient management is crucial for a patient's outcome. In order to manage common emergencies, every doctor, nurse professional, medical assistant and other hospital staff should possess basic knowledge of emergency care and the skills necessary for dealing with these situations. Adequate education in first aid and BLS should be considered as an essential aspect of the medical curriculum.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GOI has developed National Emergency Life Support (NELS) Centres across the country to train doctors, nurses, and paramedics on NELS courses. PGIMER, Chandigarh has also developed the NELS Skill Centre at APC, as a part of the same project.

The inauguration of this centre was done by Prof Vivek Lal, Director, PGIMER along with Prof, Rakesh Sehgal, Sub-Dean (Research and Academic), Mr. Kumar Gaurav Dhavan, DDA, Mr Abhay Kumar, FA and Prof. Vipin Kaushal, Medical Supt on 20th July, 2022. The centre hosted its first BLS course today, under the guidance of Prof. Kajal Jain, Dept of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care. More than 30 nurses from various Departments of PGI were trained today on BLS skills.
What did this course teach the participants?
High-quality CPR for adults, children, and infants
Important early use of defibrillator
Effective ventilations using a barrier device
Importance of teams in multi-rescuer resuscitation and performance as an effective team member during multi-rescuer CPR
Relief of foreign-body airway obstruction (choking) for adults and infants
This BLS training will be given in batches to the employees of PGI as well as will be provided to various personnel from outside PGI who request for the same