Other criteria

You will be required to declare any criminal convictions or issues in relation to your fitness to practise.

For propriety, such declarations need to include all convictions, regardless of whether or not they can be regarded as 'spent'; this includes driving offences, with the exception of fixed penalty notices and parking offences.

This will be assessed from your application, at interview, via your references, and will be checked prior to you taking up any employment offered.

The application form will contain a full page dedicated to nine fitness to practise issues.

Should you answer 'yes' to any of the nine corresponding questions, you will be required to give further details. This information should be supplied by submitting the designated 'Fitness to Practise Declaration Form' by the application closing date. The form can be sent via the PSRO applicant enquiries service.

In addition to demonstrating you have  the experience requirements, there are three related requirements to your career stated on the person specifications:

• ability to provide a complete employment history; candidates not providing any employment history on their application form will be rejected.
• evidence that career progression is consistent with personal circumstances
• evidence that present achievement and performance is commensurate with totality of period of training.

The second and third of those points will be assessed at interview. At the applicattion stage, you just need to complete in full the employment section of the form.

You must meet professional health requirements in line with GMC standards, as described in Good Medical Practice.

All you need to do during the recruitment process is to declare your understanding that employment will be subject to satisfactory medical clearance, and your awareness of GMC guidelines on fitness to practise. This will be done via within the declarations page of the application form.

The person specifications have an explicit requirement for all applicants to have gained an Advanced Life Support Certificate from the Resuscitation Council UK (or equivalent) by the post start date, however, those who are submitting a certificate of readiness to enter specialty training who will have to submit this sooner, at the point of submitting their application. 

Submitting the ALS certificate with the certificate of readiness to enter specialty training

All applicants who demonstrate their foundation competence via completion of the certificate of readiness to enter specialty training must also submit a valid ALS certificate from the Resuscitation Council UK or equivalent at the point of submitting their application. One of the following must be submitted:

• ALS certificate from the Resuscitation Council UK or
• ALS certificate from an equivalent course that assessed your ability in all of: ECG and pulse interpretation of aberrant rhythms, defibrillator use, use of drugs such as adrenaline/atropine and assessing and treatment for shock or
• A course outline and confirmation of booking for a course that meets the requirements and a declaration (on the certificate of readiness to enter specialty training itself) that you will provide a certificate of completion prior to commencing a training post

Which courses/certificates are regarded as equivalent to the UK Resuscitation Council ALS certificate?

The UK Resuscitation Council (RC[UK] website) is keen to ensure strict quality control and standardisation of experience/skills gained in resuscitation training. As such, there are strict guidelines applied on which courses/certificates can be classed as equivalent to the RC(UK) certificate.

RC(UK) course certificates are recognised across Europe and are valid for four years (ILS/PILS are valid for one year).

The holder of any RC(UK) course certificate has achieved a standard defined by the RC(UK); the tight quality control applied to the course programmes, the teaching scenarios, the instructors and the assessment provides some assurance of this standard.

Since RC(UK) have no such information on, or control over, the standards of potential 'equivalent' courses, RC(UK) clearly cannot offer any similar guarantee concerning successful participants.

However; ALS certificates provided by the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) (ERC website) or Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC) (ARC website) are recognised by RC(UK), as these organisations use the same programme, teaching material and assessment process.

So in summary: ALS courses/certificates from only the UK , European and Australian Resuscitation Councils can be accepted as meeting the requirement for advanced life support training.

Courses not included

Although the list below is not intended to be an exhaustive list of courses which are not included, some which are commonly mistaken to be equivalent but do not meet the criteria include:

• ACLS (advanced cardiac life support)
• ATLS (advanced trauma life support) courses
• paediatric versions of ALS.

Providing information

You can provide information as follows:

On your application: you will be asked whether or not you have a valid ALS certificate on the application form and the date of completion

At interview: your ALS certificate will not be checked at interview, but will be requested by your employer at a later date