Private hospitals have been authorized to conduct Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) courses for their nursing staff and other medical workers. Special courses are also conducted for senior healthcare practitioners who will eventually conduct training courses in the basic and advanced life support programs. “Private hospitals, like ours, can now conduct basic and advanced life support courses first to our nurses and other medical staff, then to other healthcare workers from other hospitals and health institutions,” said Mary Jane P. Tupas, nursing director of Mohamed Aldossary Hospital in Al-Khobar. Foreign workers in the healthcare sector, such as nurses, medical technicians, and other allied workers, are now required to take courses in Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) in order to practice their profession in the Kingdom. Other non-medical workers like the police, fire brigade members, lifesavers, security guards and other allied professionals are also required to have knowledge of CPR. CPR training is now jointly supervised by the Saudi Heart Association, the Saudi Health Council and the Ministry of Interior. Knowledge of CPR is one of the requirements for foreign nurses who take the qualifying examination given by the Saudi Health Council in order to practice nursing in the Kingdom. Mandatory knowledge of CPR for medical practitioners was introduced in Saudi Arabia in 1983 when the American Heart Association conducted the first course in Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) in cooperation with the Saudi Heart Association.
