Basic Life Support (BLS) is the cornerstone of resuscitation and the main determinant of survival from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.[1]
The European Resuscitation Council (ERC) Guidelines for Resuscitation 2015 highlighted the importance of teaching CPR to Healthcare professionals working in a variety of settings.
[1] As initial training sites for all physicians, medical schools are prime locations for CPR training. This recommendation is in line with the final report on the Tuning Project for Medicine (2008), an initiative funded by the European Commission. Providing immediate care in medical emergencies is considered a Level 1 competence and all medical graduates must be able to provide BLS according to the ERC guidelines.[
[2] In 2011, NOVA Medical School of New University of Lisbon conducted a curriculum reform and established a partnership with an ERC accredited school (Associação ALENTO). A BLS provider course was included in the 1st year of the medical curriculum. A refresher course was also included in the 3rd year, allowing the revision of previously
acquired skills and providing additional training in automatic external defibrillation (AED).
Since 2011, 2698 medical students were trained in BLS/AED. 26 students were identified as potential instructors, of whom 10 became full instructors accredited by the ERC.
As a result of this project, since 2017, all medical graduates from NOVA Medical School have been trained and certified by the ERC as BLS/AED providers.

2 - ‘BLS in medical curriculum: strengthening the survival chain’