To bridge the training gap between healthcare providers who regularly provide advanced pediatric life support and those who infrequently care for critically ill or injured children, the American Heart Association has created a new intermediate course — Pediatric Emergency Assessment, Recognition, and Stabilization (PEARS). This course supports healthcare providers who do not regularly provide advanced pediatric life support or are not credentialed for advanced pediatric treatment. Specifically, PEARS develops skills in recognizing certain signs and symptoms of a child in cardiopulmonary distress who needs rapid support.
Co-branded with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), PEARS is a video-based course with instructor-led discussion that takes approximately seven hours to complete. Prevention of cardiac arrest or respiratory failure is the primary focus of the course, as it equips healthcare providers to assess, recognize and begin stabilization of pediatric victims prior to arrest. Because the providers for whom PEARS is intended do not regularly treat critically ill children, the course uses several unique visual cues and learning tools to help students recognize the signs of distress and to teach and reinforce the most relevant steps in handling a child at risk of cardiopulmonary arrest.
For more information about PEARS, including specific course materials and pricing, visit http://www.americanheart.org/cpr or call 877-AHA-4CPR.
