Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS)

As an Emergency Department Approved for Pediatrics (EDAP), the emergency care team is certified in Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS). All members of the Miller Children’s pediatric emergency care team go through this advanced training course.

The American Heart Association has an advanced training course for health care professionals who treat critically ill children, called Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), which is especially beneficial training in the emergency department. The course is designed to teach pediatric health care providers to efficiently and effectively manage the care of critically ill infants and children, resulting in improved outcomes.

The goal of the PALS course:

• Recognize infants and children at risk of cardiopulmonary arrest
• Develop a systematic approach to pediatric assessment
• Learn defibrillation and synchronized cardioversion
• Learn intraosseous access and fluid bolus administration
• Learn strategies needed to prevent cardiopulmonary arrest in infants and children
• Learn skills needed to resuscitate and stabilize infants and children in respiratory failure, shock, or cardiopulmonary arrest.

The course is based on science evidence from the 2005 AHA Guidelines for CPR and ECC.