RESUMO
The Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC) established in 2000 (Guidelines 2000) are the standard for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) all over the world. Written guidelines based on Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) are widely available throughout Japan and are studied by physicians but ACLS training courses have been made available only recently. In 2003, our hospital formed a committee to address standards of patient safety and one of the recommendations of the committee was the attendance of standardized BLS by health care workers and of ACLS by physicians. In May, 2003 a total of 447 physicians from our hospital participated in a workshop on BLS which provided lectures, demonstrations and a written examination. After completion of this workshop, it has been concluded that standardization in the area of resuscitation is mandatory, and efforts to disseminate this workshop to health care practitioners are to be undertaken.