Basic Life Support (BLS) for Healthcare Providers — Saskatoon

Who this course is for

BLS for Healthcare Providers is the professional standard for resuscitation training in clinical settings. Saskatchewan Health Authority and the colleges and programs that feed it have standardized on BLS as the baseline CPR credential for clinical staff. If you're in any of these roles, this is the course you need:

• Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, and nursing students at the University of Saskatchewan College of Nursing and SaskPolytech
• Continuing Care Assistants, healthcare aides, and home care workers
• Paramedicine students (PCP, ACP, EMR) at SaskPolytech and active paramedics
• Physicians and medical students at the U of S College of Medicine
• Dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants
• Pharmacists and pharmacy students
• Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, respiratory therapists
• Massage therapists, chiropractors, and others where their college specifies BLS as a condition of practice
• Veterinarians and veterinary technicians
• Anyone whose Saskatchewan regulatory college or clinical employer specifies BLS

If you're not in a clinical role and someone has told you to "get your CPR" or "renew your CPR," BLS is almost certainly more course than you need. Our standalone CPR/AED course at Level C is the more appropriate fit.

Curriculum

BLS is skills-dense. The theoretical portion is brief — framing the latest ILCOR consensus and Heart and Stroke Foundation guidelines — and most of the course is hands-on practical work. The curriculum is aligned with the AHA's BLS Provider course, which makes the credential broadly portable if you ever practise in the United States.

• The chain of survival for adult, child, and infant patients, in clinical settings
• High-performance CPR — compression depth, rate, full recoil, minimizing interruptions, team coordination
• One-rescuer and two-rescuer CPR — including switching responsibilities every two minutes to maintain compression quality
• AED operation in clinical contexts — including pad placement on adult and paediatric patients, and special-case considerations
• Bag-valve mask ventilation — single-rescuer and two-rescuer technique, integration with supplemental oxygen, troubleshooting ineffective ventilation
• Airway adjuncts — oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal airway familiarization, head-tilt/chin-lift versus jaw thrust
• Pulse check technique — carotid, brachial, and femoral checks, and recognition of cardiac arrest in clinical environments where confounders exist
• Choking — adult, child, and infant, conscious and unconscious
• Special situations — opioid-associated emergencies and naloxone administration, pregnancy, drowning, hypothermia
• Post-cardiac-arrest care and structured handover to advanced cardiac life support teams

Prerequisites

No formal prerequisites. You don't need to hold a prior CPR certificate before taking BLS. However, the course moves quickly through the basics — it assumes you're going into or already working in a clinical role and can handle a fast pace. If you'd prefer a more measured introduction to CPR before the clinical-grade course, CPR Level C covers the same fundamentals in slightly less compressed format.

Certification and renewal

On successful completion, you receive a Canadian Red Cross BLS Provider certificate. Saskatchewan Health Authority and most clinical employers in the province require annual renewal — regardless of the certificate's printed validity. Renewal is a shorter recertification session covering updated guidelines and re-assessing core skills.

Group sessions and clinic bookings

Monthly BLS cohorts run at our Saskatoon training centre. Private group BLS sessions are also available for clinics, dental practices, long-term care facilities, and student cohorts. Register online or call for group pricing.