The purpose of the Emergency Neurological Life Support (ENLS) Recertification course is to focus on improving care during the first hours of contact for patients with acute neurological emergencies. The structure of the ENLS course is based on the concept that a standardized approach to diagnosis, stabilization, early workup and timely management will improve functional outcomes for these neurologically critically ill patients. Special attention is placed on timely collection of relevant data and effective communication of the same to various care providers throughout the continuum of acute care management.

The ENLS Course is updated every two years. Highlights of ENLS Version 5.0 include:

• Updated diagnostic and management algorithms
• Management protocol which summarizes how the module is to be used
• Checklists of “to-do” items in the first few hours
• Expanded sections for prehospital providers, nursing, and pediatrics
• Updated pharmacotherapy manuscript with new medications, removal of less relevant medications, and the addition of alternative medications to reflect global variability
• Updated/new figures and neuroimaging
• Clinical pearls and take-home points
• Detailed communication tables with sample scenarios to use when transitioning care from prehospital to emergency department (ED) and from ED to neurocritical care unit.
• Starred references in the bibliography section highlighting key papers along with a short description of their importance
• Attention to both internal consistency among manuscripts and external consistency with published guidelines from the Neurocritical Care Society as well as our sister societies involved in emergency and critical care of these patients