AHA PALS Provider study guide
AHA PALS Provider · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
PALS - Pediatric Advanced Life Support - is one of the advanced resuscitation credentials the American Heart Association lists among its healthcare professional courses, alongside BLS and ACLS. The AHA describes that path as the place to "get training or renew BLS, ACLS, or PALS credentials," so candidates are typically clinicians who may have to manage a critically ill infant or child: physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, paramedics, and other advanced providers, whether certifying for the first time or renewing. The AHA PALS Provider study guide has 5 sections and about 1,575 words.
01Recognition and Management of Respiratory and Circulatory Emergencies
Pediatric deterioration is predictable: respiratory distress progresses to respiratory failure and then arrest, and compensated shock progresses to hypotensive shock and then cardiac arrest. Bradycardia in a child should be treated as hypoxia until proven otherwise, so oxygenation and ventilation come before any drug.
340 words, about 2 min02Airway Management and Ventilation
Pediatric airway anatomy drives technique: relatively large occiput, small mouth, large tongue, a floppy omega-shaped epiglottis, a larynx that is funnel-shaped and narrowest at the cricoid in infants, and a short trachea that makes tube malposition easy. Position to align the ear canal with the sternum - often a shoulder roll for infants, sniffing position for older children.
324 words, about 2 min03Rhythm Disturbances and Electrical Therapy
Treat the child, not the tracing. Bradycardia with a pulse and poor perfusion is usually hypoxic: ventilate with oxygen first, and if the rate remains below 60 per minute with poor perfusion despite effective ventilation, begin CPR.
332 words, about 2 min04Pharmacology
PALS drug questions usually hinge on the concentration as much as the milligram dose, so learn both together. Epinephrine for cardiac arrest is 0.01 mg/kg (0.1 mL/kg of 1:10,000) IV/IO, repeated every 3–5 minutes, maximum 1 mg per dose.
292 words, about 1 min05Post-Cardiac Arrest Care and Team Dynamics
After return of spontaneous circulation, the goal shifts from restarting the heart to protecting the brain and preventing rearrest. Titrate oxygen to an SpO2 of roughly 94%–99% and wean unnecessary 100% oxygen, since hyperoxia contributes to reperfusion injury.
287 words, about 1 min