Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Resuscitation Education Products and Services

The Resuscitation Education and Innovation (REdI) program, housed within the VHA Simulation Learning, Evaluation, Assessment, and Research Network (SimLEARN) under the Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning (OHIL), serves as the national program responsible for delivering mandatory resuscitation education and training across the VHA. This includes both clinical and non-clinical employees across the enterprise.

VHA is federally mandated to ensure staff competency in resuscitation techniques in accordance with healthcare regulations and internal directives. To meet these requirements, REdI provides comprehensive national support services, including training materials, standardized equipment, oversight, and validation of local VA medical facility resuscitation education programs.

As the national subject matter expert in resuscitation education, REdI is responsible for the full spectrum of resuscitation training across VHA. This includes the identification, development, administration, and maintenance of all required courseware, as well as oversight of mock code programs, training materials, and standardized equipment. REdI serves as the operational lead for the implementation and compliance of VHA Directive 1177, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, ensuring that all designated clinical and non-clinical personnel are equipped to obtain and maintain the certifications necessary for emergency response readiness. Through this comprehensive oversight, REdI ensures consistency, quality, and preparedness across the enterprise. Certification requirements are further defined in VHA Directive 1101.14, Emergency Medicine, which outlines the clinical and non-clinical roles required to maintain appropriate levels of training. These directives ensure that all designated staff are prepared to respond effectively to clinical deterioration or medical emergencies involving patients, visitors, or employees within VA medical facilities and their surrounding campuses.

Over the past nine years, REdI has led a transformative shift from traditional, instructor-led classroom training to an innovative, self-directed digital platform. This evolution embraces a Low Dose, High Frequency (LDHF) model that emphasizes deliberate practice and objective feedback, enabling clinicians to build and sustain critical skills through brief, focused sessions. This modern approach aligns with the latest education science and responds to healthcare market demands by significantly reducing time away from direct Veteran care, preserving clinical capacity and ensuring continuity of services.

Today, nearly 275,000 VHA clinical and non-clinical employees across 172 VA medical centers and over 1,200 Community-Based Outpatient Clinics engage with REdI’s digital learning ecosystem. The platform delivers scenario-based eLearning modules that promote interactive learning, assess knowledge and confidence, and adapt to learner needs. These are followed by psychomotor skill assessments conducted on Mobile Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Testing Stations equipped with adult and infant manikins.

This self-directed model provides real-time, objective feedback and validates competency in compressions and ventilations, enabling certification in Responder (Lay Rescuer), Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) without instructor facilitation. Learners can complete training through a traditional biennial format or a standardized LDHF pathway. The LDHF model is grounded in evidence-based education science, helping prevent skill decay in life-saving interventions and ensuring compliance with federal healthcare accreditation standards.

The current Government training environment features an enterprise-wide infrastructure that supports standardized resuscitation education across the VHA. This includes approximately 2,050 Mobile CPR Testing Stations, each equipped with Laerdal QCPR® adult and infant manikins. These stations deliver Lay Rescuer, BLS, ACLS, and PALS courseware through the RQI 1Stop digital platform.

In addition to digital delivery, the Government maintains a comprehensive library of current-edition digital and print educational materials to support a wide range of certifications, including HeartSaver (HS), BLS, ACLS, Advanced Stroke Life Support (ASLS), Pediatric Emergency Assessment, Recognition, and Stabilization (PEARS), and PALS. These materials are utilized by a network of approximately 2,500 trained and approved VHA instructors who facilitate instructor-led classroom sessions and mock code training, as appropriate. This learning environment ensures that VHA personnel, both clinical and non-clinical, have access to the appropriate level of training based on their roles, while maintaining flexibility, standardization, and compliance with national resuscitation education requirements.

The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) serves as the global coordinating body for resuscitation science. It provides a consensus-based framework for evaluating and updating evidence-based guidelines related to CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC). ILCOR publishes updated treatment and training recommendations on a five-year cycle, with the most recent guidelines covering the period of 2025-2030. These updates inform the continuous improvement of VHA resuscitation training programs, ensuring alignment with the latest global standards and best practices.