BELS Framework

From the May/June 2000 issue of EMSC News:

    At the National Congress on Childhood Emergencies, the Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) Program announced the establishment of a nationwide program to encourage schools to incorporate basic emergency lifesaving skills training into their current health education curricula. 
    Developed by more than 25 national organizations and medical institutions, the Basic Emergency Lifesaving Skills (BELS): A Framework for Teaching Emergency Lifesaving Skills to Children and Adolescents takes the EMSC Program one step closer to its long-term goal of increasing the number of school districts requiring first aid and CPR proficiency as a condition for high school graduation.
    Every year, more than 31 million individuals between the ages of one and 17 years visit the emergency department due to an illness or injury. Many of the incidents occur in the home while a parent is away at work, in a school where a nurse is not available, or on the playground when an adult is not present. Other children or adolescents often become involved in these incidents when walking to or from school, playing in the schoolyard, or while babysitting, and may be the first person available to render assistance prior to the arrival of emergency medical services (EMS) personnel. 
    According to EMSC officials, the introduction, acquisition, and reinforcement of basic emergency lifesaving skills - such as CPR and first aid during Kindergarten through grade 12 - instills in students a sense of social responsibility and allows them to gain confidence in responding to sudden and often frightening events. It also teaches them to recognize the need for emergency assistance and how to obtain it. The primary advantages of school-based teaching are that its content would be compulsory for a wide audience, including minority populations, and that standardized training would be provided consistently over time in a developmentally appropriate manner. Teachers also would be assured that the previous content was taught, enabling students to enhance their skills from year to year.
    The BELS Framework is available through the EMS National Clearinghouse. To obtain a hard copy, call the Clearinghouse at (703) 902-1203 or send an e-mail to emsc@circsol.com and ask for product #848. The Framework is also available as a free downloadable .pdf document from the EMS web site at www.ems-c.org. Once at the site, click on "Products and Resources" then "downloadable files."

Click here to download BELS Framework.