Basic Disaster Life Support™ (BDLS®) Course

The BDLS course is a competency-based, awareness-level course that introduces concepts and principles to prepare health professionals for the management of injuries and illnesses caused by disasters and public health emergencies. The aim is to improve the coordination of response in disasters and other public health emergencies by developing a common approach and language among multiple disciplines in the health care community.

This course targets emergency medical service, personnel, hazardous materials personnel, public health personnel and other health care professionals simultaneously and offers a review of natural disasters, traumatic and explosive events, nuclear and radiological events, biological events and chemical events. Information on the health care professional's role in public health and incident management systems, community mental health and special needs of underserved and vulnerable populations is also included in the BDLS course.

Course objectives:

Identify the critical need to establish health care preparedness for disasters
Define "all-hazards" and list the possibilities
Define "disaster" and "mass-casualty-incident (MCI)"
Identify the components of DISASTER Paradigm™
Identify and apply the BDLS triage model using SALT triage and "ID-MED"
Describe the differences between the BDLS and ADLS^® courses

The BDLS course meets the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1910.120 requirement for Hazardous Materials Awareness.

Locate a Basic Disaster Life Support course near you.

The American Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The American Medical Association designates this live activity for a maximum of 7.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.