The purpose of the American Red cross Basic Life Support course is to ensure that individuals with a duty to respond (public safety professionals and healthcare providers) have the requisite knowledge and skills to respond to patients who are experiencing respiratory and cardiac arrest and airway obstruction . the emphasis is on providing high-quality care integrating psychomotor skills with the skills of critical thinking and problem solving to achieve the best possible patient outcomes.

Targeted Audience 

The intended audience for this course includes:

• Public safety personnel, such as first responders (law enforcement officers and firefighters), emergency medical responders (eMRs), emergency medical technicians (eMts), advanced eMts (AeMts) and paramedics
• Medical personnel, such as pharmacists, nurses, physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, dentists and students entering the field
• Members of emergency response teams, such as athletic trainers, corporate response teams, security personnel and ski patrollers .