Advanced cardiovascular life support is the American Heart Association course for cardiac and respiratory arrest, the arrhythmias around them, and acute coronary syndromes and stroke. Emergency departments, intensive care and cath labs expect it, and a posting writes it as ACLS.

Median Healthcare Salarywith ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support)

10%$21.10/hr

median$32.44/hr

90%$43.78/hr

Top Median Salary by Statewith ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support)

Indiana$32.44/hr

One Florida rule, four positions

Florida's office surgery standard hands out cards by position. The surgeon holds ACLS and one assistant holds BLS, at Levels I, II, IIA and III alike, with minor skin work under local anesthesia exempted from both. Levels II and III also need an anesthesia provider who fills no other role, and at Level II a registered nurse may take that seat where the surgeon is ACLS certified, while Level IIA swaps the requirement for a physician, physician assistant or nurse. Above Level I someone holding ACLS, or PALS where the patient is a child, has to be available in the recovery room (Rule 64B8-9.009, F.A.C.). One procedure room, and the card follows the chair you sit in.

Your questions about ACLS jobs, answered

Is ACLS a specialty certification?: It's a course completion card. You take the class and pass the skills test, with no requirement to have worked in critical care first. A specialty credential counts your practice: the adult direct-care CCRN counts hours of critical care over the 2 or 5 years before you apply, and then keeps the credential alive on a 3-year cycle of practice hours plus either continuing education or a repeat of the exam. A posting that names both is asking you for 2 different things.
Does an ACLS card decide what I do in a code?: An ACLS card is evidence of training, and the authority sits elsewhere. Who leads the code, who pushes and who documents comes from your license and from the standing orders written for that unit, so 2 hospitals can run the same arrest differently with identical cards in the room.
Which jobs ask for ACLS away from a hospital unit?: Sedation work asks for it, and dentistry shows the pattern plainly. Oregon won't issue or renew a dentist's moderate sedation permit unless they hold a current BLS for Healthcare Providers certificate or its equivalent, plus ACLS and/or PALS, whichever is appropriate for the patient being sedated; at renewal a board-approved course on minimal or moderate sedation taken at least every 2 years can stand in for ACLS, though never for PALS (OAR 818-026-0060, current version effective January 2025). Training in sedation itself is a separate condition of the same permit. That's how ACLS turns up on dentist postings that have nothing to do with a cardiac unit.