Massachusetts Regulations on Online CPR for Healthcare Providers

Online CPR training websites are seductive, promising accredited courses in CPR training at your convenience, without hours of classes or hands-on activities. But online CPR training may not be ideal for health care providers as an alternative to traditional CPR training. In Massachusetts, there are regulations in place to counter the use of online training courses to obtain CPR certification.

Massachusetts Healthcare Advisory on Online CPR Training

• In 2004, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued an advisory to clarify its policy on online CPR training. According to this advisory, state requirements for CPR training and certification could not be met solely through completion of an online course. The standards for CPR training require academic and practical skills, training and evaluation. Since online courses cannot provide practical training, they are not sufficient to obtain CPR certification.

Massachusetts CPR Training Standards

• Massachusetts regulations dictate that only CPR training certificates from recognized training institutions, including academic and practical training and evaluation, are considered valid under current state laws. Training certificates issued by the American Heart Association, American Red Cross or National Safety Council satisfy state legal requirements for EMTs and first responders.

  It is possible to complete an online training course as one element of CPR certification, in addition to practical training, but certificates from online courses would need to be issued only after successfully completing a state-approved course and evaluation.

State Online CPR Training Course

• Massachusetts offers an online CPR training course of its own through the Massachusetts Emergency Care Training Academy. The Basic Life Support (BLS) Online Course for health care providers provides a flexible CPR training option for professionals working in the health care industry who already possess some level of prior CPR training

  The basic BLS course offers the knowledge-based part of the class online. Completion of this portion results in the award of a printable certificate that is required to continue to Part 2 of the course.

  Part 2 of the course is a skills validation test to be completed with an American Heart Association instructor.

  The Massachusetts Emergency Care Training Academy also offers a health care provider course designed to teach CPR for victims of all ages, including techniques such as use of an automatic external defibrillator and relief of a foreign body airway obstruction. This course is specifically for training health care providers for a variety of settings, inside and outside of a hospital.

National Online Training Course

• The Red Cross also offers accredited and reputable online training courses in CPR, available by state. Massachusetts residents may look up their local Massachusetts chapter for information on courses.

  The Red Cross course on CPR for health care providers teaches official American Red Cross Professional Rescuer standards for CPR. To earn CPR and AED certification, students must pass an online test and then attend a skill session to perform and review skills.