American Heart Association · Basic Life Support
AHA BLS Provider (Basic Life Support)
BLS Provider is the healthcare professional standard for CPR. It is the card your employer, your nursing program, or your licensing board is almost certainly asking for when they say "CPR certification."
- Course Length
- 3 to 3.5 hours
- Credential
- AHA BLS Provider eCard, valid two years from the month of issue.
- Format
- In person, hands-on. On-site available.
- Issuing Body
- American Heart Association
Who this course is for
- Nurses, RNs, LPNs, and CNAs
- EMTs, paramedics, and fire service personnel
- Physicians, PAs, and nurse practitioners
- Dental staff renewing for Florida Board of Dentistry requirements
- Nursing, dental hygiene, respiratory, and EMS students entering clinicals
- Physical, occupational, and respiratory therapists
What you will learn
- High-quality chest compressions for adults, children, and infants
- Bag-mask ventilation and rescue breathing technique
- AED use, including pediatric considerations
- One-rescuer and two-rescuer team dynamics
- Relief of foreign-body airway obstruction (choking)
- The AHA Chain of Survival and when each link matters
Prerequisites
None. BLS Provider is both an initial certification and a renewal course — there is no separate "renewal" class.
Need this for your whole team?
On-site training is our primary service. We bring instructors, manikins, AED trainers, and all course materials to your facility anywhere in Lee, Collier, or Charlotte County — and we can contract a recurring schedule so nobody's card ever lapses.
Request On-Site TrainingQuestions people actually ask
Is this the same as CPR certification?
For a clinical role, yes — BLS Provider is what employers mean. If you are a teacher, coach, personal trainer, or workplace responder, Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED is the correct course instead. If a job posting or licensing board specifies BLS by name, Heartsaver will not satisfy it.
Can I renew BLS online?
Not with an online-only course. Florida employers and licensing boards require a hands-on skills component verified in person by a certified instructor. AHA HeartCode BLS is a legitimate blended path: you complete the cognitive portion online, then complete an in-person skills check. Care Chain CPR provides HeartCode BLS skills checks.
How fast do I get my card?
Your AHA eCard is issued electronically. You will receive a claim email at the address you registered with, and the card is valid for two years from the month of issue.
Do you come to our facility?
Yes. On-site BLS is our primary service. We bring manikins, AED trainers, and all course materials to your site anywhere in Lee, Collier, or Charlotte County, and we can contract a recurring schedule so your team never lapses.
Why Care Chain CPR
Care Chain CPR is an American Heart Association Authorized Training Site and an American Red Cross Authorized Provider. Classes are taught by active firefighter-paramedics and credentialed healthcare providers — people who do this work on shift, not classroom-only educators. We serve Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, Bonita Springs, Estero, Lehigh Acres, Port Charlotte, and Punta Gorda.