Course Guidelines

This course is designed in accordance with current American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) recommendations and follows nationally accepted standards for safe procedural sedation.

Air Air

Governance & Clinical Standards

The curriculum is based on:

  • Current ASA Practice Guidelines for Moderate Procedural Sedation and Analgesia
  • The ASA Continuum of Depth of Sedation framework
  • The fundamental Rescue Principle: providers must be able to recognize and rescue patients whose level of sedation becomes deeper than intended.

Core Learning Competencies

Upon successful completion, participants will be able to:

  1. Explain the continuum of sedation and anesthesia.
  2. Perform a comprehensive airway assessment and initiate appropriate airway management.
  3. Select appropriate sedative and analgesic medications based on patient and procedure.
  4. Monitor patients according to current ASA standards.
  5. Recognize and manage early respiratory compromise.
  6. Identify and treat sedation-related hemodynamic instability.
  7. Perform Basic Life Support (BLS) and appropriately escalate to Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS).
  8. Recognize failed or inadequate sedation and determine when conversion to deeper anesthesia is indicated.
  9. Complete accurate, compliant clinical documentation.
  10. Identify high-risk patients and implement appropriate risk-reduction strategies.