In 2020 the AHA created pathways in the Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED course. Rumor was it was in response to the length and detail of the class to make it shorter and more comparable to other First Aid CPR AED courses. What it did was create some confusion for Instructors and course participants. We now have Heartsaver Total First Aid CPR AED and Heartsaver Basic First Aid CPR AED.
What’s the difference?
Heartaver Total requires Instructors to show all First Aid content. It is an OSHA approved course.
Heartsaver Basic has required core content that must be included in the class. Other content from the course videos could be included, but not all optional content has to be included. It’s not an OSHA approved course.
Total or Basic only refers to the First Aid content of the Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED course. It does not refer to CPR AED. If an Instructor teaches Heartsaver Total First Aid CPR AED covering Adult, Child, and Infant CPR AED they must check those boxes off on their roster and when eCards are issued. Rosters only listed as Heartsaver Total First Aid CPR AED do not automatically imply Child or Infant CPR AED was included in the course.
For 5 years it was an editable option to make a course ‘Total’ when issuing eCards. Now it is a required field to choose Basic or Total when issuing cards to course participants and that designation cannot be edited later.
This means if eCards are issued as Basic, and it turns out that all content was covered and the course should be Heartsaver Total – this cannot be corrected later. The Instructor has to purchase all new eCards for the course participants and notify their Training Center Coordinator to have the incorrect eCards revoked. Revoking eCards can only be done by the AHA and usually the request can only come from the Training Center Coordinator.
Please double check roster and/or eCard submissions before sending to make sure Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED course are entered correctly as Basic or Total.