AHA PEARS

Bluebell, I learned a new thing because of you. I have toyed with PALS certification but I always reject it because I am not in a place I would be resuscitating someone (other than with an AED). PEARS sounds super-cool.

I've done both PEARS and PALS from when I worked inpatient at the pedi hospital about 5/6 years ago. I think PEARS can be very valuable in helping to recognize certain emergent conditions! IIRC, it primarily covers the causes of respiratory distress/arrest (upper or lower airway obstruction), causes of sepsis, etc. I need to go get mine redone. Honestly, anyone who treats children would benefit from it. I will say that other emergency courses for school nurses offer similar information, though perhaps not as succinctly. In addition to that, you are going to get some info you may not necessarily need, such as recommended treatment for such conditions. It's essentially a baby PALS, with more emphasis on recognition and less on resus procedures. Actually, in the pedi hospital, they started only requiring PEARS for nurses not on code/RR teams, instead of requiring PALS.

Thanks pedi_nurse for the reply. It sounded like a good program, and I'm glad to know it's really as useful as they promote.

Ruby_jane- Happy to share! I just happened to stumble on it when I was looking at dates to renew my CPR.

I was PEARS certified when I worked at the hospital. Great training that didn't take too long to do. Helped a lot with respiratory distress and sepsis recognition in kiddos. I recommend!