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Core Disaster Life Support® (CDLS®) Course Version 3.0
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Course Description:
The CDLS Course v.3.0 is a competency-based, awareness-level course that introduces clinical and public health concepts and principles for the management of disasters and public health emergencies. The course incorporates the "all-hazards" approach to personal, institutional, and community disaster management through the use of two unique mnemonics, the PRE-DISASTER Paradigm™ (which applies to event mitigation and preparedness) and the DISASTER Paradigm™ (which applies to event recognition, response, and recovery).

The overarching aim of the CDLS Course is to provide participants from diverse professions, disciplines, and backgrounds with a common lexicon, vocabulary, and knowledge in disaster-related medicine and public health that can be reinforced and expanded in the Basic Disaster Life Support™ (BDLS®) and Advanced Disaster Life Support™ (ADLS®) Courses. The CDLS Course is aimed at a broad range of audience categories, including medical first responders, health professionals, health service providers, public health workers, and health support personnel.
  • P – Planning and practice
  • R – Resilience
  • E – Education and training

  • D – Detect
  • I – Incident management
  • S – Safety and Security
  • A – Assess hazards
  • S – Support
  • T - Triage and Treatment
  • E – Evacuation
  • R – Recovery

Course Duration: 3.5 hours of didactic teaching
Target Audience:
  • Medical first responders
  • Health professionals
  • Health service providers
  • Public health workers
  • Health support personnel
  • Others, including police and fire personnel
Class size:The CDLS course can be provided to large audiences and is limited only by the size of the classroom.
Pre-requisites: None
Course Length: 3.5 hours
Course Credits: 3.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits
Recertification: N/A
The American Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The American Medical Association designates this educational activity for a maximum of 3.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.