Have you ever felt like you needed a crash course in deciphering the language of tiny humans during medical emergencies? Welcome to the PEARS Provider Course, your ticket to mastering the art of swift assessment, recognition, and stabilization when the tiniest patients need you most.

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 created an 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 signs and symptoms of a child in cardiopulmonary distress who needs rapid support.

Because the providers for whom PEARS is intended do not regularly treat critically ill children, the course utilizes 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. One of the unique tools used in the course is video-based simulation, which enables providers to see and hear critically ill children. Students also participate in and practice various skills at learning stations, after which they must pass skills tests and a final written exam. Upon course completion, students receive AHA PEARS certification.

What is the difference between AHA PEARS and PALS?

The American Heart Association (AHA) offers two pediatric training courses: PALS and PEARS. The Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) course is designed for healthcare providers who manage cardiac and respiratory emergencies in children, focusing on advanced life support interventions such as advanced airway management and cardiac rhythm interpretation. On the other hand, the PEARS course targets healthcare providers who may encounter pediatric emergencies, but do not require the advanced skills covered in PALS, emphasizing early recognition and basic stabilization techniques. While PALS delves into more complex scenarios and interventions, PEARS provides a foundational understanding tailored for a broader range of healthcare professionals working with pediatric patients.

The PEARS course was established in 2007 by the AHA and co-branded with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to address feedback from students who had taken PALS and found that it went far beyond their scope of practice. In pre-release trials, students taking PEARS reported that the course did a much better job of meeting their needs than PALS, primarily by emphasizing initial recognition and stabilization.  Though it is not a prerequisite for PALS, PEARS provides a good foundation for succeeding in PALS and can serve as a starting point for providers interested in learning more advanced pediatric life support skills.

PEARS Course Format

The AHA’s PEARS course is a classroom-based, Instructor-led course, where students learn how to use a systematic approach to quickly assess, recognize the cause, and stabilize a pediatric patient in an emergency. In the course, skills are taught in large-group sessions and small-group learning and testing stations where case-based scenarios are presented using the course video. The PEARS Course includes child and infant BLS skills practice and testing.

During PEARS, students interact with real patient cases, realistic simulations, and animations to assess and stabilize pediatric patients experiencing respiratory and shock emergencies and cardiopulmonary arrest. PEARS prepares students to provide appropriate lifesaving interventions within the initial minutes of response until a child can be transferred to an advanced life support provider.

Specifically, the course teaches: 

• Systematic pediatric assessment

• Recognition and stabilization of respiratory emergencies

• Recognition and stabilization of shock emergencies

• Recognition and stabilization of cardiopulmonary arrest

• Resuscitation team concept

Are there prerequisites for taking the PEARS Course? 

Before taking PEARS, students should master child and infant BLS skills, including CPR and using an AED.

Who should take this course?

The AHA’s PEARS Course is designed for healthcare providers and others who might encounter pediatric emergencies during their work, including:

• Physicians and nurses not specializing in pediatrics

• Nurse practitioners

• Physician assistants

• EMTs,

• Respiratory therapists

• Prehospital and in-facility healthcare providers (outside of critical-care areas)

• Outpatient clinic staff

• School-based providers

• Any other healthcare provider who infrequently sees critically ill or injured infants and children

Course Completion Card

Students who complete the PEARS Course will receive a PEARS Provider course completion card (print or eCard), valid for two years. Course completion requirements include:

• Active participation in case discussions

• Active participation in the rescue breathing skills station and cardiac arrest case simulations

• Pass the skills tests in 1- and 2-rescuer child BLS with AED and 1- and 2-rescuer infant BLS

• Pass the video-based written exam with a minimum score of 84%

ACLS Academy is an authorized American Heart Association (AHA) Aligned Training Center. We follow the AHA Curricula for PEARS Provider. We have three convenient locations in Massachusetts – Quincy, Bridgewater, and Newton Center with most of our classes including an online training component. We provide high-quality courses taught by instructors practicing in the medical profession for ACLS, TNCC, BLS, ENPC, NRP, PALS, Bloodborne Pathogen, HeartSaver CPR/AED, First Aid, and Instructor Courses. Please browse our catalog of courses.