Experience of Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) provider courses in a tertiary care centre of Pakistan

Abstract

Background: Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) courses prepare candidates to respond to life-threatening emergencies in children. Objective: To describe the experiences of teaching the PALS course in a developing country. Methods: We described the experience of teaching PALS courses conducted according to guidelines of American Heart Association to physicians and nurses at Aga Khan University Hospital from January 2011 to December 2015. The outcome of the courses was recorded as passing of participants both in written test as well as skill stations. The passing score for test was 84%. We also recorded participant’s evaluation of the course. Data were entered in the excel sheet and descriptive statistics were applied. Results: During 5 years, 1044 candidates participated in 88 PALS courses. Majority were female (n=732, 70.1%). Physicians and nurses were 383 (36.6%) and 661(63.3%) respectively. Besides pediatricians, 373 participants (35.7%) were from emergency department and other clinical area. A passing grade was achieved by 936 (89.6%) of participants; the mean test score for whole sample was 88.37%. Four PALS instructor courses were also conducted and 33 new instructors were added to instructor pool. Evaluation of the course by students revealed that 98% of student felt able to respond in emergency situations while 93% felt confident in the use of taught skills. Conclusion: We found that conducting PALS courses is a positive educational experience to participants which will help in saving the lives of acutely ill children by practical implications.