The complete instructor guide to ACLSMED™ SIM — the tablet clinical suite — and ACLSMED™ CPR, the free compression-quality trainer for your learners' phones and Apple Watch.
Monitor/defib, instructor remote, IV pump, ventilator, 33 MegaCodes
Measures compression rate, depth & hands-on time on a manikin
Worn or placed
Stood at the bedside
Phone on the chest, or the watch on the compressing wrist — § 04
Network
Local peer-to-peer between your devices
Local peer-to-peer to a SIM tablet
Why the split matters
Because CPR needs no account, you can tell twenty learners to install it in the parking lot and it just works. Nothing they do touches your seat count, and nothing leaves their phone.
ACLSMED Instructor ManualOverview
§ 01
Before you teach
What goes on the table, and the ten minutes that decide whether the session runs clean.
§ 01.01 — Room kit
What you need in the room
iPad · MONITOR
The patient
Place it where a real monitor lives — head of the bed, screen out. This is what the team treats.
iPad · INSTRUCTOR
Yours only
Never in a learner's line of sight. Everything you touch appears on their monitor as if the patient did it.
Manikin or mat
Any compression surface
The suite doesn't talk to manikin hardware — it doesn't need to.
A local network
Or none at all
Devices find each other peer-to-peer. No internet needed once you're signed in.
Do this before every class
Charge above 80%, set Auto-Lock → Never, turn on Do Not Disturb. A monitor that sleeps mid-arrest is the most common avoidable failure in a live session.
Before you teachRoom kit
§ 01.02 — Setup
The ten-minute room build
Power and unlock. Charged, Auto-Lock off, Do Not Disturb on.
Same network. Every tablet on one Wi-Fi; leave Bluetooth on — discovery uses both.
Sign in and assign roles. Monitor on the patient iPad, Instructor on yours.
Confirm the link. The Monitor's CONNECTION panel shows a green tick per role.
Rehearse one beat. Change a rhythm from your remote; watch the Monitor follow. If it does, the room is live.
Seat the learners. Hand out phones for CPR, then brief scope: manikin only.
Before you teachTen-minute build
§ 02
ACLSMED™ SIM
One patient state, broadcast live to every instrument in the code. You change the patient; the team works the machine.
§ 02.01 — Roles
Each tablet is one instrument
MONITOR
Patient monitor + defib
INSTRUCTOR
Orchestrator remote
IVMED
IV pump · Suite
RESPMED
Ventilator · Suite
CPR SIMULATOR
Multi-student CPR test
The choice persists across restarts — label a tablet "Monitor" and it stays the monitor. Change it later in Settings.
ACLSMED™ SIMRoles
§ 02.01 — Who sees what
Two screens, and who looks at each
The Monitor iPad
Theirs — the patient
Live ECG, SpO₂, EtCO₂, blood pressure, the defibrillator and NIBP. Stand it at the head of the bed, screen to the team. This is the screen students watch and operate.
The Instructor iPad
Yours — private
Vitals sliders, the rhythm catalog, the scenario loader and the code log. Everything you touch here surfaces on their Monitor as if the patient did it. Keep it out of their line of sight.
"Can students see the ECG without looking at my screen?"
Yes — that is exactly what the Monitor role is for. If the team is crowding your controller to read the rhythm, you're running without a Monitor iPad. Add a second iPad, set it to MONITOR (Settings → Device Role), and stand it at the bedside. The two pair peer-to-peer — they watch the Monitor, you drive from the Remote.
ACLSMED™ SIMWho sees what
§ 02.02 — Pairing
No codes to type
Devices advertise themselves on the local network, connect automatically, and sign every message they exchange — so a stray tablet next door cannot drive your patient. Confirm on the Monitor's CONNECTION panel: green tick = live, red cross = not connected.
If a role won't connect
1. Same Wi-Fi · Bluetooth on · Airplane Mode off. 2. Accept the local-network prompt (Settings → ACLSMED → Local Network). 3. Guest/enterprise Wi-Fi often blocks device-to-device traffic — use a phone hotspot, or turn Wi-Fi off and let them pair directly. 4. Force-quit both, relaunch Monitor first.
ACLSMED™ SIMPairing
§ 02.03 — Instructor Remote
The screen you'll live in
It mirrors the students' monitor at the top, gives you every dial in the middle, and reports what the team actually did at the bottom.
Deteriorate or improve in real time. Toggling a channel off removes that trace from the monitor entirely.
PACER
Reward correct transcutaneous pacing — or show capture failing at too low an output.
DEFIB 50 / 150 / 200 / 360 J
Preset the machine before a beat; reset between cases.
Rhythm selector
Step the catalog or jump to a specific rhythm — 60+ entries.
Quick Actions
Fire 12-Lead, X-RAY, Labs or Silence onto the student monitor the moment the team asks.
Monitor Mirror
See shocks delivered, energy used, pacer settings — without walking over.
Habit worth building
During an arrest watch the Monitor Mirror, not the students' hands. Shock count and energy tell you if they're following the algorithm better than their narration does.
ACLSMED™ SIMRemote regions
§ 02.03 — Settings
The gear menu, and the flashing
Settings (gear)
What it does
Device Role
Switch this iPad between Monitor · Instructor · IVmed · RESPmed · CPR — no reinstall.
Reset Scenario
Everything back to defaults — Sinus 60, 120/80, SpO₂ 100, EtCO₂ 40 — and clears the code log.
Audio
Master mute, master volume, and a switch for every cue. Mirrors the Monitor's Sounds menu.
Instructor Display → Disable Alarm Flashing
Stops the vital cards on your remote from flashing when they go out of range. The student Monitor keeps alarming normally.
Connections
The paired-device roster — a green tick per live role.
"How do I turn off the flashing on my controller?"
Settings (gear) → Instructor Display → Disable Alarm Flashing. It's a comfort setting for your remote only — the patient's Monitor still flashes so the team sees the alarm. This is separate from SILENCE, which mutes the alarm sound but never the flash.
ACLSMED™ SIMSettings
§ 02.04 — The Monitor
What the learners see
Lead II ECG · SpO₂ pleth · EtCO₂ capno, with numerics and normal ranges. Defib column: DEFIB / AED / SYNC / ANALYZE, energy dial, CHARGE, SHOCK, pacer. Bottom toolbar: MEGA CODES · RHYTHM · SUMMARY · 12-LEAD · X-RAY · LABS · MEDS · CPR · PADS · NIBP · SILENCE.
ACLSMED™ SIMThe Monitor
§ 02.04 — The Monitor
Three things learners miss
SYNC exists
Synchronized cardioversion behaves differently from a defibrillation shock. Using it is graded reality.
ANALYZE / AED mode
The same machine becomes an AED — one iPad covers BLS and ACLS audiences.
SILENCE ≠ fixed
It silences the alarm without fixing the patient. Watch who reaches for it first — best teaching moment in the app.
Monitor skins — match the face to the environment you teach
ACLSMED™ SIMMonitor detail
§ 02.04 — The Monitor
The bottom toolbar, button by button
Button
What it does on the Monitor
MEGA CODES
Load a scenario — sets the patient, opening rhythm and vitals.
RHYTHM
Open the rhythm catalog; step or jump to any of 60+ rhythms.
SUMMARY
The code event log — shocks, drugs, energies, timings. Wiped on power-cycle.
12-LEAD · X-RAY · LABS
Reveal the scenario's 12-lead, chest film and lab panel. The 12-lead zooms, saves and prints.
MEDS
The drug and crash-cart reference.
CPR · PADS
CPR-quality overlay; place the defib pads (needed before charge/shock).
NIBP
Run a non-invasive BP cuff cycle — it inflates, then displays the reading, with a cuff-inflation cue and a completion chime.
SILENCE
Mute the audible alarm. It does not fix the patient and does not stop the visual flash.
This toolbar is theirs
The Monitor is the students' machine — NIBP, PADS, ANALYZE, CHARGE and SHOCK are theirs to press. You set the patient state from the Remote; the team operates the instrument.
ACLSMED™ SIMMonitor toolbar
§ 02.04 — Sound
Every cue in the room is a switch
Sounds menu
Cue
Mute all sound
Master kill for every cue below.
Master volume
Overall level for the Monitor's audio.
Alarm tones
The out-of-range alarm beeps.
HR beep
The heartbeat / QRS tone.
SpO₂ pulse
The pulse-oximeter tone.
NIBP cycle
The cuff inflation and measurement-complete sounds.
Voice cues
Spoken prompts — blood-pressure and analyze call-outs.
Patient sounds
Patient audio, such as breathing.
"Why isn't the NIBP cuff making a sound?"
Three switches, all in the Sounds menu: Mute all must be off, Master volume up, and NIBP cycle on. With those set, pressing NIBP on the Monitor inflates the cuff out loud and chimes when the reading lands.
ACLSMED™ SIMSounds menu
§ 02.05 — Driving the patient
Two ways to move a patient
Slide a vital
Gradual
Drag HR, SpO₂, ABP, EtCO₂ or Temp. Small increments simulate a decline; large ones an event.
Change the rhythm
Discrete
Step with the arrows or pick from the catalog — 60+ entries across sinus, blocks, tachycardias, arrest rhythms and artifact.
Make deterioration believable
Real patients don't jump. Drop pressure and saturation first, give the team a beat to notice, and only then convert to VF. Learners taught to read the trend beat learners taught to react to the alarm.
ACLSMED™ SIMDriving the patient
§ 02.05 — Teaching tools
Take a number away
On the Remote, Hide from student blanks a value on the team's Monitor — so they have to earn it clinically instead of reading it off the screen.
Hide HR
Hide BP
Hide SpO₂
Hide CO₂
Tap again to bring a value back; Hide ALL clears the numerics in one move.
The drill that builds assessors
Blank the SpO₂ and make them tell you the patient is hypoxic from the pleth, the colour and the chest — not the number. Reveal it only to confirm what they already called.
ACLSMED™ SIMHide vitals
§ 02.05 — Data on demand
Give them data when they ask
A full 12-lead with rhythm strip, patient header and interpretation line — fired from your remote onto their monitor. Zoom, SAVE and PRINT are live: print the tracing and put it in their hands for the debrief. X-ray and labs work the same way. Footer carries the simulation-only disclaimer.
Tension pneumo · Tamponade · Hyperkalemia · PE · Hypothermia
Medical Emergencies
4
Anaphylaxis · Sepsis · Submassive PE · TCA overdose
Advanced Resuscitation
1
Post-ROSC / post-cardiac-arrest care
Each ships with a patient record, dispatch scene, history, opening vitals, expected monitor interpretation, labs, an optional chest film, and learning objectives.
ACLSMED™ SIMScenario library
§ 02.06 — Important
You are the algorithm engine
Read this before your first session
ACLSMED does not step a scenario forward on its own and does not score the team's decisions. Loading a MegaCode sets the stage — patient, starting rhythm, opening vitals. You decide when the patient deteriorates, converts, or achieves ROSC.
This is deliberate. It keeps clinical judgment with the instructor instead of with a script — which is why the same scenario can teach a first-year nurse and a senior resident differently. The cost is that you must plan your beats before class.
ACLSMED™ SIMHow scenarios work
§ 02.06 — Structure
The five-beat code
Beat
You do
You're testing
1 · Present
Load the scenario, read the dispatch scene, let them assess.
Primary survey, rhythm recognition
2 · Confirm
Fire the 12-lead or labs when asked — not before.
Whether they ask for the right data
3 · Pressure
Slide pressure and saturation down. Say nothing.
Trend recognition, closed-loop comms
4 · Event
Convert the rhythm — arrest, block, tachyarrhythmia.
Algorithm execution, shock/drug timing
5 · Resolve
Reward correct care with ROSC, or continue the arrest.
Post-ROSC thinking — or an honest debrief
ACLSMED™ SIMFive-beat structure
§ 02.07 — Suite tier
Add the real task load
IVmed — two-channel pump, hardware keypad
RESPmed — vent waveforms, predicted body weight
Two more instruments bound to the same patient. Someone has to actually program the pump and manage the vent while the code runs — that task saturation is the point. Teaching cue: set an obese patient's height in RESPmed and let the class see lung-protective volume follow predicted weight, not actual.
ACLSMED™ SIMIVmed & RESPmed
§ 02.08 — Debrief
Debrief from data
The running log: events, shocks, energy delivered and timings. Open it the moment you call the code.
Capture it before you power-cycle
The log states it plainly: wiped on power-cycle. Debrief first, or screenshot it. Restart the app and the timeline is gone.
"You gave epi at 4:10 and the second shock at 4:55" is a conversation. "I think you were slow" is an argument.
ACLSMED™ SIMCode Summary
§ 02.09 — FAQ
The questions we hear most
Instructor asks
Answer
Can students hear the NIBP cuff — and can they trigger it?
Yes. NIBP is on the Monitor (their screen); pressing it runs the cuff, inflates with sound and chimes when done. Silent? Turn on Sounds → NIBP cycle, raise Master volume, and clear Mute all.
How do I stop the alarm flashing on my controller?
Settings (gear) → Instructor Display → Disable Alarm Flashing. Your remote only — the student Monitor still alarms. SILENCE, separately, mutes the sound.
Can students view the ECG without looking at my screen?
Yes — put a second iPad in the MONITOR role at the bedside. The team watches it; your Instructor remote stays private. One iPad only means they share your screen until you add a Monitor.
The pattern behind all three
The Monitor is the patient the team treats — sounds, alarms, NIBP and the ECG all live there. The Remote is your private control surface. Give the room a dedicated Monitor iPad and most of these questions answer themselves.
ACLSMED™ SIMInstructor FAQ
§ 03
ACLSMED™ CPR
Six learners, six phones, one board. Free, no account — and it measures what they actually did.
§ 03.00 — Scope of use
Say this to every class
Manikin only · training only
ACLSMED™ CPR is a training aid for use on a manikin only. It is not a medical device, it is not for use on or during the care of a real patient, and its readings are for education and feedback in a simulation setting.
Say it out loud before the first test — it is part of using the product correctly. The app enforces it too: every learner passes a training-only acknowledgement before they can start.
ACLSMED™ CPRScope of use
§ 03.01 — How it works
Phone measures. Board teaches.
The learner's phone runs the free app. Motion sensors detect each compression; rate, depth and hands-on time are computed on the phone. Nothing is uploaded; there is no account.
Your iPad runs SIM in the CPR SIMULATOR role — up to six phones, one per slot, live side by side.
Send them home with it
The phone works without a tablet — it just has no board to stream to. So the homework is real: "practice at home, bring me your rate and depth next week."
ACLSMED™ CPRGate & pairing
§ 03.02 — On the phone
Eyes up, not on the screen
READY — connected, hands over the device
ACTIVE — compressions, time, running score
The phone deliberately shows a ring and three numbers, and tells the learner "live feedback is on the monitor" — so their eyes stay on the manikin and the room. A 110/min metronome is built in for pacing drills.
ACLSMED™ CPRPhone · live
§ 03.03 — On the phone
Scores and coaching, not fake precision
TEST COMPLETE — score, band, per-category coaching
Each category carries a sentence the learner can act on — "on target, a good steady pace"; "meets the guideline — shorten pauses to reach 80%." The app shows zones and scores rather than centimetre readouts, because a phone's honest depth error is a few millimetres against a 10 mm-wide target.
ACLSMED™ CPRPhone · results
§ 03.04 — The board
Six learners at once
Slots 1–6 fill green as phones connect. Each row builds red → yellow → green by depth zone, with a live verdict — GOOD, ALMOST, PUSH HARDER. The countdown is the remaining test time; two minutes is one full AHA compression cycle.
ACLSMED™ CPRLive station board
§ 03.04 — Coaching
Read the bar, say the words
Bar reads
Verdict
Say this
Reaches the green band
Good
"That's the depth. Hold it — don't drift."
Stalls in the yellow band
Almost
"Nearly there. A centimetre more, same rate."
Stays in the red band
Push harder
"Straight arms, shoulders over your hands, use your body weight."
Overshoots past green
Too deep
"Ease off slightly — over 6 cm has its own harms."
The move that changes behaviour
Run the first round with the board hidden. Learners who see live feedback from the first compression never find out what their unassisted CPR looks like — and that gap is the entire lesson.
ACLSMED™ CPRCoaching words
§ 03.05 — Results
One ring each, one instruction
Per learner: OVERALL plus RATE / DEPTH / CCF, and one prescriptive badge — GREAT CPR, FOCUS: DEPTH, FOCUS: RATE. Note the teaching point in the data: a learner can hold a 90% rate and still finish at 60% overall because depth was 30%. Read the sub-rings aloud, then the badge — a learner told "60%" hears a grade; a learner told "push a centimetre deeper" hears an instruction.
Guideline floor 60%; full marks at the high-performance 80%.
Targets follow the AHA 2025 Guidelines, Part 7: Adult Basic Life Support. Scores use a rolling average, not a single compression — so measurement scatter doesn't dock textbook technique. The three rings you see are the score; there is no hidden fourth dimension.
ACLSMED™ CPRScoring
§ 03.07 — Honesty
Limits you must teach
Limitation
Tell learners
Recoil isn't measured
One phone sensor cannot detect leaning. Full recoil still matters enormously — you coach it by eye. The app is silent on it, not forgiving of it.
Depth is an estimate
A sensor estimate on a manikin, not a calibrated measurement. Use it to drive behaviour, not to certify a millimetre.
Placement changes it
Same technique, different phone position, different number. Standardise before comparing learners.
Surface matters
A manikin on a soft bed reads differently from one on the floor. Keep it constant within a session.
Manikin only
Never on a person. Not in a real arrest, not "just to see."
Fair leaderboards
A leaderboard is only fair when every station is identical. Strapped to the back of one hand and gripped in another's fist ranks phone position, not CPR.
ACLSMED™ CPRLimitations
§ 04
ACLSMED™ CPR on Apple Watch
Wear the sensor instead of placing it. Same free app, same score, same slot on your board — and the rhythm cue arrives through the wrist that is doing the compressing.
§ 04.01 — How it fits together
Three devices, one chain
The watch cannot reach your iPad on its own — that link lives on the phone. So a learner on a watch still brings their iPhone to the manikin, awake and in the app. Lose the left link and the watch keeps measuring for the learner but your board loses them; lose the right link and only the learner sees anything.
ACLSMED™ CPR · Apple WatchThe chain
§ 04.02 — Install
Getting it onto the wrist
Install ACLSMED™ CPR on the iPhone. Free, no account. There is nothing separate to find on the watch — the watch app ships inside the phone app.
Let it cross over. It usually installs on the paired watch by itself. If it hasn't: on the iPhone open Watch → Available Apps → ACLSMED CPR → INSTALL.
Open it once on the watch and accept the training-only acknowledgement. The watch has its own gate — accepting on the phone does not accept it here.
Type the learner's name on the phone — Settings (gear) → STUDENT. That is the label you will see in your roster; the watch only displays it.
Choose the sensor when the picker appears, then start teaching.
What it needs
Requirements
Apple Watch on watchOS 10 or later, paired to an iPhone on iOS 17 or later. Your iPad needs ACLSMED™ SIM 2.1.0 or later for watch students.
What it costs
Nothing
No second purchase, no separate download, no account, and no seat on your plan. The watch is part of the free companion app.
ACLSMED™ CPR · Apple WatchInstall
§ 04.03 — Sensor role
One phone, one stream
The moment the app sees a paired watch with the companion installed, it asks once per launch which device is measuring. No watch, no question — the picker never appears where the choice cannot be made.
iPHONE FOR CPR — phone on the sternum or the back of the hand, as before.
APPLE WATCH FOR CPR — watch on the compressing wrist; the phone relays.
Why it is a choice and not a toggle
One iPhone contributes exactly one stream — its watch or itself, never both. That is what stops a learner appearing twice on a six-slot board. Switching mid-class keeps the same slot and the same name.
Change it any time on the phone: the SENSOR ROLE button top-left, or Settings (gear) → APPLE WATCH.
ACLSMED™ CPR · Apple WatchSensor role
§ 04.04 — On the phone
The phone stops measuring and starts relaying
On screen
What it tells you
APPLE WATCH ACTIVE
Red watch glyph = the wrist hasn't opened the app yet. Green = it is streaming.
Watch Metronome
110 bpm wrist taps and clicks, switched from here or from the watch itself.
SIM MONITOR LINK
Green = this phone is in your room. The FRAMES counter climbing is proof the chain is carrying data, not just connected.
SENSOR ROLE
Back to the picker — one tap to hand measurement back to the phone.
There is no START on this screen — and that is deliberate
In watch mode the wrist owns the run. The phone is a relay and a settings console; it never measures at the same time.
ACLSMED™ CPR · Apple WatchPhone as relay
§ 04.05 — Settings
Set once, per learner
Section
What to do with it
CONNECTION
Your iPad should be listed as ACLSMED SIM — monitor with a green tick. No row = this phone is not in your room, so neither is the watch.
STUDENT
The name you will read on the board. Fill this in before the first test — an unnamed learner shows as "Slot 3".
APPLE WATCH
Which device is measuring, the wrist metronome, and Watch status — Paired → Ready, open the app on your watch → Streaming.
METRONOME
The phone's own 110 bpm click. Independent of the wrist's.
"Watch status" is the fastest diagnosis in the room
Read it before you touch anything else. Paired means the app is not open on the wrist. Ready means it is open but not measuring. Streaming means the problem is somewhere else.
ACLSMED™ CPR · Apple WatchSettings
§ 04.06 — On the wrist
The pre-flight, in four lines
● ACLSMED SIM CONNECTED
Green means the whole chain is up — phone reachable and your iPad receiving. Grey means the watch will still measure for the learner, but you will not see it.
The name
Pushed from the phone. Blank = nobody typed one in Settings → STUDENT.
START
Begins measuring — and asks your room to run its two-minute test (§ 04.08).
♩
Wrist taps and clicks at 110/min. Red = on.
TRAINING ONLY, on every screen
The watch carries the same manikin-only acknowledgement as the phone, and the same mark on every face. A worn device makes that boundary easier to blur — say it out loud anyway.
ACLSMED™ CPR · Apple WatchPre-flight
§ 04.07 — On the wrist
The whole screen is the verdict
Push harderToo shallow
AlmostA centimetre short
GoodIn the band — hold it
Too deepPast 6 cm — ease off
Same four words and the same four colours as the CPR quality bar on your Monitor — the wrist computes the zone and ships it with every frame, so the wrist and the wall cannot disagree. The timer above the word is how long this compressor has been going. Mid-compression the wrist faces the sternum and nobody reads it; the lamp is built for the glance between cycles, and for everyone else in the room.
ACLSMED™ CPR · Apple WatchThe lamp
§ 04.08 — Running a test
Who owns the clock
Who presses
What happens
Who can end it early
You, on the iPad
The two-minute window opens for every connected station at once.
You only — a student device cannot end an instructor-started test.
A learner, on the watch or phone
Their START asks the room to run its test; your iPad opens the window for everyone.
That device — STOP finishes early and jumps to their debrief.
Six learners at once
First press wins. The rest are already in the test they just asked for — nobody restarts anyone's clock.
The one who started it.
The watch debrief
When the window closes
Overall score with a band — EXCELLENT · GOOD · KEEP PRACTISING · NEEDS WORK — then RATE · DEPTH · HANDS-ON out of 100. Scores, never centimetres.
It cannot be lost
Even on a dark screen
The wrist's grade is sent with guaranteed delivery, so a watch that dimmed mid-test still lands its result on your board.
Let them start their own
Student-started tests turn a queue into a station. You watch the board and coach; each learner runs their own two minutes when the manikin is free.
ACLSMED™ CPR · Apple WatchStarting a test
§ 04.09 — On your iPad
You cannot tell which is which
A watch learner takes a normal slot, under their normal name, with the same bar, the same verdict words and the same debrief as a phone learner — mixed classes just work. That is deliberate: nothing on your board sorts people by hardware. Verify the chain end to end before the first test — phone Settings shows Streaming, the watch reads ACLSMED SIM · CONNECTED, and their name appears in a slot. All three, or you are teaching blind.
ACLSMED™ CPR · Apple WatchThe board
§ 04.10 — Honesty & fixes
What the wrist changes, and what to do
Symptom
Fix
Watch says NOT CONNECTED
Open ACLSMED CPR on the phone and check it is in your room. The watch reports the whole chain, and the room end is the phone's.
Learner vanishes from the board mid-test
Their phone locked or they left the app. Keep it awake, on screen, beside the manikin.
Screen dims while compressing
Expected, not a fault. The wrist is face-down so watchOS dims it; the lamp stays on and readable and the data keeps flowing.
No compressions recorded
The watch must be on the wrist that is doing the compressions, not the free arm.
Board shows a slot but no name
Phone Settings → STUDENT.
Arm movement is not counted
Reaching for a bag-valve mask, ventilating or gesturing does not inflate the count — the app rejects motion that isn't compression-shaped. A slow posture change during compressions is deliberately still counted; that's a rescuer adjusting, not an error.
Fair leaderboards, wrist edition
The wrist and the sternum are different measurement sites. Both are honest estimates; they are not the same estimate. Within one comparison round, keep everyone on the same kind of sensor — and everything else identical: same manikin, same surface, same wrist.
Every limit in § 03.07 still applies — recoil is not measured, depth is an estimate, and it is a manikin trainer, never a patient device.
ACLSMED™ CPR · Apple WatchLimits & fixes
§ 05
Teaching playbooks
Three sessions that work out of the box, and the debrief that makes any of them stick.
§ 05.01 — Playbook
60-minute ACLS refresher
Time
Block
What you run
0–5
Orient
Show the Monitor. Point at SYNC, ANALYZE, SILENCE. They work the machine; you are the patient.
5–15
Rhythm drill
Step the catalog, call each cold. Fast, high-repetition recognition.
15–25
Skill isolation
One skill each: charge/shock · sync cardioversion · pace to capture.
25–45
Two MegaCodes
One shockable, one not — Pulseless VT, then PEA — Hypovolemia. Five-beat structure.
45–60
Debrief
Open CODE SUMMARY, walk the timeline. One keep + one change per learner.
PlaybooksACLS refresher
§ 05.02 — Playbook
30-minute CPR quality lab
Time
Block
What you run
0–5
Scope + setup
State manikin-only scope. Install, fill slots, standardise phone placement.
5–10
Baseline
Two-minute test. No coaching, board hidden. The honest starting point.
10–18
Coached round
Board visible. Coach live off the bars with the verdict words. Rotate compressors.
18–25
Re-test
Two minutes again — same placement, same surface. Compare to baseline.
25–30
Debrief
Sub-rings and focus badges. Name the limits. One target each for next time.
PlaybooksCPR quality lab
§ 05.03 — Playbook
Full mock code & the debrief
Four tablets + phones on the compressors.
Assign real roles — leader, compressor, airway, drugs, recorder (on paper).
Load a reversible-cause case — Hyperkalemia → VF or Tension Pneumo → PEA.
Run straight through. No stopping, no coaching. Let mistakes happen.
Layer task load: pump on IVmed, vent on RESPmed, during the code.
Debrief from three sources: Code Summary, CPR board, recorder's sheet.
Debriefing that lands
Learner first — "walk me through what you saw." They usually name their own error.
Then the data — timeline, shock count, compression scores. Timestamped and unarguable.
One change each — not five, stated as an action.
Close on competence — they remember the last thing you said.
PlaybooksMock code & debrief
§ 06.01 — Reference
When it goes wrong live
Symptom
Fix
Instructor and Monitor won't link
Same Wi-Fi · Bluetooth on · Airplane off. Settings → ACLSMED → Local Network → on. Relaunch Monitor first.
Worked yesterday, fails on hospital Wi-Fi
Guest/enterprise networks block device-to-device. Use a phone hotspot, or turn Wi-Fi off and pair directly.
Monitor sleeps mid-scenario
Auto-Lock → Never, on every tablet, before class.
Remote changes don't land
Check the CONNECTION panel; reconnect, then confirm with one rhythm change before resuming.
A phone won't take a CPR slot
All six full, or the phone is on another network.
Depth reads implausibly low/high
Re-seat the phone flat against the back of the hand, screen up. Keep the surface identical.
A watch learner never reaches the board
The chain runs watch → their iPhone → your iPad. Check the phone is in your room first; the watch cannot get there alone. § 04.01
A watch learner drops out mid-test
Their phone locked or they switched apps. Keep it awake, in the app, beside the manikin.
Code Summary is empty
It is wiped on power-cycle — capture it before restarting.
Can't sign in on a new iPad
All seats held. Release the seat on the retired device first.
ReferenceTroubleshooting
§ 06.02 — Reference
Keep this beside the tablet
Parameter
Target
Scored
Compression rate
100–120/min
37.5%
Compression depth
5.0–6.0 cm
37.5%
Compression fraction
≥60% · 80%
25%
Full chest recoil
Every one
Coach by eye
Test length
2:00
One cycle
Stations per tablet
6
One phone each
Sensor per learner
Phone or watch
Never both
Pre-class checklist
▢ Tablets >80%, Auto-Lock off, DND on
▢ One network; local-network permission granted
▢ Roles assigned; CONNECTION all green
▢ Scenario chosen, beats planned
▢ CPR: app installed, slots filled, placement standardised
▢ Watch learners: names typed, phones awake & in the room
▢ Scope stated: manikin only, training only
Support support@aclsmed.com · Downloads aclsmed.com/download · Team seats aclsmed.com/institutions
ReferenceQuick reference
§ 06.03 — Button guide
Button guide · defib & pacer
Button
What it is & what it does
DEFIB
Mode tab — manual defibrillation, the default: you set the energy, charge and deliver.
AED
Mode tab — the machine becomes an AED: analyze → advise → shock → a 2-minute CPR cycle → automatic re-analysis, looping like the real thing.
SYNC
Mode tab — synchronized cardioversion. A charged shock is held and fires on the R-wave, not the instant SHOCK is pressed.
ANALYZE
Mode tab — runs a rhythm analysis and advises whether a shock is indicated.
− / +
The energy dial — steps the selected energy down or up.
120 · 200 · 300 · 360
Energy presets — jump straight to a standard dose in joules.
CHARGE / DISARM
Charges to the selected energy. While charged the same key reads DISARM — press it to dump the charge safely without shocking.
SHOCK
Delivers the energy. Dead until the machine is charged; in SYNC it waits for the next R-wave.
PACER
Toggles transcutaneous pacing — the LED lights while pacing is live.
RATE − / + · mAMP − / +
Pacing rate (beats/min) and current (mA), stepped in fives. Capture on the ECG depends on enough output.
Pads first
CHARGE, SHOCK and AED stay dead until PADS is on. If the defib "isn't working," check the pads before anything else.
ReferenceButton guide 1 / 3
§ 06.03 — Button guide
Button guide · scenario & data
Button
What it is & what it does
MEGA CODES
Loads one of the 33 scenarios — patient, opening rhythm and vitals — directly from the Monitor.
RHYTHM SELECT
Opens the rhythm catalog; step or jump to any of 60+ rhythms.
CODE SUMMARY
The code event log — shocks, drugs, energies, timings. Wiped on power-cycle — debrief or screenshot before restarting.
12-LEAD
Reveals the scenario's 12-lead ECG. Zoom, SAVE and PRINT are live — print the tracing and hand it over for the debrief.
X-RAY
Reveals the scenario's chest film.
LABS
Reveals the scenario's lab panel.
MEDS
The drug and crash-cart reference.
Same data, two surfaces
You can fire the 12-lead, X-ray and labs onto this screen from the Remote's Quick Actions the moment the team asks — or the team opens them here. Both screens stay in sync.
ReferenceButton guide 2 / 3
§ 06.03 — Button guide
Button guide · hands-on & top bar
Button
What it is & what it does
CPR
Toggles the CPR-quality overlay — it pulses at 110/min while compressions run.
PADS
Places or removes the defib pads. Pads must be on before CHARGE, SHOCK or AED will fire.
NIBP
Runs a non-invasive blood-pressure cuff cycle — inflates audibly, then chimes and posts the reading.
SILENCE
Mutes the audible alarm and reads SILENCED while live. It never stops the visual flash — and never fixes the patient.
♩ Metronometop bar
Toggles a continuous ≈110/min compression click — no ventilation pause, compression-only guidance.
⚙ Settingstop bar
Device role, Reset Scenario, the Sounds switches, alarm-flash preference and Connections.
CONNECTIONside panel
Not a key — the paired-device roster. Green tick = live role; red cross = not connected.
This machine is theirs
Every key in this guide sits on the student-facing Monitor. You drive the patient from the Remote; the team operates the instrument.
ReferenceButton guide 3 / 3
Fin
Now go run a code.
ACLSMED™ SIM and ACLSMED™ CPR are education and simulation software for use with simulated patients and training manikins. Neither is a medical device; neither is intended for use on, or during the care of, a real patient; and neither replaces an accredited AHA course or your own clinical judgment. Clinical targets follow the AHA 2025 Guidelines for CPR and ECC.
ACLSMED
Est. 2013
ACLSMED™ SIM
ACLSMED™ CPR
