OH-ALS has evolved from our established ALS programme, redesigned to address the realities and demands of pre-hospital care.
In the two days, you’ll broaden your understanding of delivering advanced life support outside of a hospital setting with lectures and skill stations. You’ll enhance practical skills and non-technical skills with simulations and workshops.
During the course, you will develop the knowledge and skills required to:
- recognise and manage the deteriorating patient using a structured ABCDE approach
- deliver standardised ALS in adults and adaptations in special circumstances
- manage a cardiac arrest by working with a multidisciplinary team in an emergency situation
- become an effective and confident team member and leader by utilising non-technical skills.
The OH-ALS course is designed for healthcare professionals who work in pre-hospital settings and need skills in Advanced Life Support as part of their clinical duties. This includes paramedics, HEMS teams and pre-hospital clinicians.
All applicants must hold a professional healthcare qualification or be in training/ studying for a professional healthcare qualification.
The Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK) Out-of-hospital Advanced Life Support (OH-ALS) course is relevant to healthcare professionals, including foundation and specialist trainees.
This curriculum map has been produced by the RCUK to illustrate the potential key capabilities that may be achieved when undertaking or instructing on an OH-ALS course.
indicates a capability highly likely to be achieved and () indicates a capability that might be achieved by attending or instructing on the relevant RCUK course. Any capability achieved during a RCUK course will need to be accompanied by appropriate supporting evidence, and this responsibility lies with the individual.
This list is not exhaustive, and other capabilities may be achieved based on individual experiences.
Please click on the relevant curriculum or training programme to download how the RCUK ALS course may support the acquisition of key capabilities within specialist learning objectives for career or training progression.
Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RECM) 2021 Curriculum
Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) 2021 Curriculum
The Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM) 2021 Curriculum
Health and Care Professionals Council
- Standards of proficiency for Paramedics
- Royal College of Paramedics: Paramedic curriculum 6th edition
Nursing and Midwifery Council
This is a two-day face-to-face course, and it will take place in a Resuscitation Council UK course centre.
All of our course centres are approved and certified by Resuscitation Council UK. Courses are run by dedicated and qualified Instructors, who have taken an RCUK instructor course to guarantee that our courses are uniform and the content remains the same across our course centres.
Pre-course preparation:
Before your course, you will be registered on our Learning Management System (LMS). Here, you can access course modules and a multiple-choice question (MCQ) paper.
You will receive your course manual one month before the course. You must read the manual and achieve a pass mark of 80% in the MCQ paper before attending the course. You may take the MCQ multiple times to achieve this
Programme:
Over the two days, you will take part in lectures, interactive workshops, skill stations and cardiac arrest simulations (CASTeach).
Assessment and certification:
During the course, candidates will be continuously assessed based on their performance in clinical simulations. You will be expected to show competency in the core skills of the course, including airway management, high-quality CPR and defibrillation, and cardiac arrest management.
At the end of the course, theoretical knowledge will be formally tested in a cardiac arrest simulation (CASTest).
This course is recognised as continuing professional development (CPD) by the Medical, Nursing and Paramedic Royal Colleges and the Health Care Professional Council. Please contact your registering body for further information.
The first step is to find a course centre near you. Below, you’ll find an area where you can search for local courses and find out how to get in touch with the organiser.
Course fees are decided locally by the course centre; Resuscitation Council UK only charges the course centre £31.57 per Candidate registration and £35.89 per ALS manual.
Courses often book quickly, so we would advise planning your attendance well in advance of when you wish to attend a course.
If you are a healthcare professional who would be expected to apply the skills taught as part of your clinical duties, or to teach them on a regular basis, you are eligible to participate on the OH-ALS course. Appropriate applicants include (but not limited to) paramedics, critical care paramedics, doctors and nurses working in the pre-hospital setting.
All applicants must hold a current clinical appointment and professional healthcare qualification or be in training for a professional healthcare qualification.
The cost of the course is set locally by the Course Centre; it includes the cost of registration and the course materials (which are provided by the RCUK).
Yes, CPD points are available according to the table below. If you have any further queries regarding CPD points, please contact the Royal Colleges directly.
CPD points | ||
|---|---|---|
Provider course | Candidates | Faculty |
| ALS (two day course) | 10 | 5 (max 10 in any one year) |
| e-ALS (one day course) | 5 | 5 (max 10 in any one year) |
| ALS recertification (one day course) | 5 | 5 (max 10 in any one year) |
| EPALS (2-day) | 10 | 5 (max 10 in any one year) |
| NLS / OH-NLS (one day course) | 5 | 5 (max 10 in any one year) |
| ARNI (two day course) | 10 | 5 (max 10 in any one year) |
| ILS (one day course) | 5 | 5 (max 10 in any one year) |
| PILS (one day course) | 5 | 5 (max 10 in any one year) |
For accreditation of other healthcare staff, please see ‘continuing professional development statement' in ‘related documents.’
For more FAQs visit our online support system
Course Availability
You can book one of the many courses in the UK shown in the list below by contacting the Course Centre organiser. The cost for a Candidate place will vary based on the Course Centre.