Read an ECG with confidence, using a clear 7-step method.

This course gives you the skills to read heart rhythms, spot life-threatening conditions, and act in the moments that matter. The Apprentice Doctor® 7-Step ECG Ruler turns a complex tracing into a clear, repeatable process, so interpretation becomes a method instead of a guess.

What you’ll be able to do

• Understand the core principles of ECG interpretation
• Apply a structured 7-step approach to read an ECG accurately
• Tell a normal rhythm from a pathological one
• Identify critical arrhythmias and start timely interventions
• Recognize myocardial ischemia, infarction, and conduction abnormalities on an ECG

What’s inside the course

1. The basics

A short history of the ECG from Galvani to Einthoven, why it matters for diagnosing arrhythmias, ischemia, electrolyte disturbances, and structural heart disease, and the cardiac anatomy and physiology behind every tracing.

2. Lead placement and configurations

The standard 12-lead ECG with its limb and precordial leads, the simpler 2- to 5-lead setups, and the 16- and 18-lead configurations used to assess right ventricular and posterior infarction.

3. The 7-step interpretation method

The core of the course, one step at a time:

• Calculating heart rate, normal and abnormal
• Rhythm analysis: sinus rhythm, atrial fibrillation, heart blocks
• QRS axis, and left, right, and extreme deviation
• PR interval and QRS/QTc, including bundle branch blocks and long-QT
• ST changes (STEMI and ischemia) and T-wave abnormalities

4. Shockable and non-shockable rhythms

Recognizing VF and pulseless VT, telling them from asystole and PEA, and the reversible causes of cardiac arrest (the H’s and T’s).

5. Assessment and certification

Multiple-choice ECG cases and a final quiz, then your CME/CPD certificate.

Who should enroll

For aspiring clinicians at every level, anyone heading for a career in the ICU or ER, future cardiologists, paramedics, pre-med, medical, and nursing students, and allied healthcare professionals after CPD/CME points.

Setting

Online and self-paced.

Duration

About 3 hours, worked through at your own pace.

Requirements and instructions

– Register with Apprentice Doctor Academy

– Enroll in the course

– Get the ECG Bundle (optional, but you’ll need the 7-Step ECG Ruler for the practical projects)

Certified credits

Counts as the equivalent of three shadowing hours.

Earns 3 CPD/CME points (3 HPCSA clinical points, Ref # BOO576/1). Transcript available upon request.

Click here to order the ECG Bundle (7-Step ECG Ruler card and pulse oximeter)

The bundle includes six months of access to this course and the Pulse Oximetry course.

Warnings

– This course is for education and training. It does not qualify or license you to practice medicine, or to diagnose or treat real patients.
 
 

Apprentice Doctor is proud to be associated with Winelands Cardiology, a leading cardiac centre in the South African winelands.