Basic Life Support (BLS)

All medical students are required to possess a current American Heart Association BLS for Health-Care Professionals certification in order to work with patients.

A Basic Life Support certification is valid for two years and it is the student’s responsibility to renew certification prior to expiration. Students with an expired BLS certification are considered non-compliant and are not allowed to participate in any clinical work or register for future courses.  You can check your BLS compliance status and expiration date on your MEdIS - Compliance tab. Students are responsible for any training costs associated with BLS certification. 

Twin Cities Students

Initial BLS certification will be provided by the Department of Emergency Medicine during the fall semester for first year medical students. Thereafter, there are two options for renewal.

Option 1
Attend a series of four maintenance of competence sessions during years 2 and 3. These 20-minute refresher sessions are offered by the Department of Emergency Medicine at no charge, and you will be issued a new 2-year certification after the fourth session, in the spring of your third year. All four sessions must be completed for this option.

Option 2
If you are unable to complete all four maintenance of competence sessions, you must take the full BLS certification course from the Department of Emergency Medicine.  See the schedule and register online. If your certification will expire before one of the scheduled courses, contact Mary Ann McNeil.

 

Duluth Students

Duluth campus medical students begin clinical activities early in their training.  To be compliant with BLS certification, we require that our students complete training as early in year 1 as possible.  Because BLS certification is valid for two years and at the end of two years we transfer oversight of your records to the Twin Cities, we will be aligning dates of your BLS training with the Twin Cities campus.  With this schedule, you will receive reminders for recertification at the start of your clinical training and at the same time as students who matriculated in the Twin Cities.  The program will be picking up the costs of this for you.  

Contact

Jennifer Neufeld - Twin Cities
612-625-4489
ume-req@umn.edu

Shawn Evenson - Duluth
218-726-8873
sevenson@d.umn.edu 

MD Students Menu