AHA BLS only: Maryville's CPR requirement, and where ACLS and PALS stand

The one card Maryville accepts

Maryville's 2026–27 catalog lists CPR as American Heart Association BLS for the Health Care Provider, one of the requirements you must meet before required clinicals. An Ask Maryville article puts it plainly: “The only CPR Certification that the University accepts is American Heart Association BLS.”

The card goes into the Compliance module in Exxat with the rest of your records, which are listed on clinical compliance. Like every item there, it has to be approved before your first clinical day and stay current until your last.

Two things have to be true of the card: the course is BLS, and the American Heart Association issued it. A card that gets one of those right and the other wrong is the usual reason a CPR item comes back.

Why other CPR cards get rejected

Maryville's article on rejected cards, dated 2021, names two cases. American Red Cross CPR cards are rejected, and so are ACLS cards submitted in place of BLS. Since AHA BLS is the only certification Maryville accepts, a Red Cross card doesn't qualify whatever the course is called.

The ACLS case catches experienced nurses. If you work in acute care you may hold ACLS and assume it covers basic life support; for Maryville it doesn't replace the BLS card. If you hold both, the BLS card is the one that goes in the CPR item.

Maryville's public articles don't name other training organizations, but the rule works the same way for them: a card that isn't AHA BLS should be expected back. Replacing a rejected card means another class and another wait for approval, so check the issuer and course name before you rely on a card.

ACLS and PALS: what we found, track by track

We found no Maryville requirement for ACLS or PALS, in the catalog or on Ask Maryville, for any NP track. The certification Maryville publishes is AHA BLS and nothing more.

That doesn't mean no site will ask. Sites clear students on their own terms as part of the third approval, and hospitals that host AGACNP practicums or PNP practicums may add certifications of their own. For one example in the other direction, SSM Health's student policy asks only for an AHA CPR card in direct patient-care areas.

If a site asks for ACLS or PALS, that is the site's requirement, not Maryville's. Your Exxat CPR item still needs the AHA BLS card either way.

Keeping BLS current through the rotation

Maryville's compliance rule has no grace period in its public wording. Its June 2026 article on missing requirements is blunt: a lapsed item puts your Exxat account on hold, you are barred from clinical and from logging hours, and any hours worked while non-compliant have to be done again.

Check the expiry date on your card against the last day of your final clinical course, not the first day of the next one. If it will lapse mid-program, renew before it does and upload the new card as soon as you have it, so there is time for approval.

Stay with the American Heart Association when you renew. A renewal from a different provider puts you straight back into the rejected-card problem above, at a point when you may be mid-rotation.

Before you book a class

Maryville's public pages don't list approved training centers or say which class formats are accepted. What they do fix is the issuer and the course, so check those two things before you pay.

A quick check before paying for a course

• The course is American Heart Association BLS, at the healthcare-provider level the catalog names.
• The card you'll receive names the American Heart Association as the issuer.
• Its expiry date covers the clinical courses you're planning, or you know when you'll renew.
• If your employer runs classes, you've confirmed they are AHA BLS before relying on one.

If you're unsure whether a class qualifies, ask approve@exxat.com, the compliance address in Maryville's Exxat help article, before you enroll rather than after.

What isn't public, and where to check

A few questions stay open on Maryville's public pages: whether blended or online-skills class formats are accepted, how far ahead Exxat flags a card as expiring, and whether any course adds a certification of its own. The Graduate Nursing Clinical Resource Center, which Maryville says covers compliance and course clinical requirements, is the first place to look.

For your own account, the CPR item in Exxat and any rejection note on it are the most specific guidance you'll get. For Maryville's rules, write to the Online Clinical Team. For a site's own expectations, ask its education department when it agrees to take you, and keep the answer in writing.

Why students choose us for the preceptor search

Your BLS card is in your hands; the preceptor search is the part that takes months, and it is the part we take off your plate. We find the preceptor and site your NP track calls for, and we ask any acute-care or pediatric site early whether it wants ACLS or PALS, so the answer arrives before onboarding instead of during it.

Maryville gives the final approval on preceptors, sites and agreements; we make sure the site's certification expectations and the preceptor's credentials are settled before your request goes in. If your card is current and your preceptor search is stuck, use the form below.