It's a classic onboarding scramble: a new employer wants proof of your BLS, ACLS, or PALS certification, the physical card is long gone, and the education department that issued it says "it was mailed to you." The good news — for most nurses certified in the last several years, the proof still exists online. Here's where to look, in order.
Step 1: Search the AHA eCards Portal
If your course was through the American Heart Association (most hospital-based BLS/ACLS/PALS is), your certification probably exists as an eCard — a digital card that lives at ecards.heart.org, independent of any physical card you lost.
- Go to the AHA eCards site and use the student search. You can look yourself up with your first name, last name, and the email you used when you registered for the course — or with the eCard code if you have any old confirmation email.
- If your card shows as unclaimed, you can claim it yourself on the spot: click Claim, set a security question, and complete the short survey. Once claimed, you can view and print it anytime.
- Access is immediate — an eCard you find today is proof you can show an employer today. Employers can verify it through the same system, which usually matters more than a physical card.
Searched and found nothing? Try every email address you might have registered with — a personal address, an old work address — before moving to step 2. The AHA notes it can take up to 20 business days after a course for an eCard to be issued, so very recent courses may just not be in the system yet.
Step 2: Contact the Training Center That Issued It
Here's the part most nurses don't know: the AHA itself doesn't replace lost cards. Per AHA policy, the Training Center where you took the course is responsible for issuing a duplicate — and it may charge a replacement fee it sets itself.
If the course was through a hospital, that usually means the education department (yes, even if you no longer work there — they can still reissue). If it was a standalone training site you can't remember or find, the AHA's Training Center locator (the Atlas tool on cpr.heart.org) can help you identify it, and AHA's Atlas support can help when a center has closed.
The honest caveat: for an old paper-era cardfrom a Training Center that no longer exists, there's no guaranteed recovery path. If you can't document it and the employer won't accept anything else, the practical answer is sometimes to just retake the course — frustrating, but faster than a paper chase that may dead-end anyway.
If You're on RQI: Different Portal
Many hospital systems have moved from classroom renewals to RQI (Resuscitation Quality Improvement) — the quarterly skills-station program. RQI credentials don't live in the standard AHA eCards portal; they're verified through RQI's own certificate site (certificates.rqi1stop.com). If you've been doing your "quarterlies" at a kiosk, look there — and know that searching ecards.heart.org and finding nothing doesn't mean your credential is gone.
Red Cross and Other Providers
If your course was through the American Red Cross, the equivalent lookup is the Red Cross digital certificate page (redcross.org/take-a-class/digital-certificate) — searchable by name, email, and class date, or by the certificate ID. Certificates can be viewed, printed, and shared from there, and a physical wallet card can be ordered for a small fee.
Make This the Last Time
- Claim your eCard the day you finish a course, and save the PDF somewhere that isn't your employer's system — you lose access to that the day you change jobs.
- Track the card like a license.BLS and ACLS run on their own 2-year clocks, separate from your license renewal. RenewRN's tracker stores BLS, ACLS, PALS, and the rest of your credential stack — eCard code included — alongside your licenses, with the same expiration reminders. The BLS certification guide covers the renewal rules themselves.
- Don't confuse the card with CE. Whether BLS/ACLS hours count toward license renewal varies by state — usually they don't.
One more honest note: whether you can keep working while a replacement is sorted out is your employer's policy, not an AHA rule — though in practice, a claimed eCard verifies online instantly, which resolves most of these standoffs on the spot.