Pediatric advanced life support training of pediatricians in New Jersey: Cause for concern?

Objective: The Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) course teaches the fu ndamental basics for pediatric emergency care, and it is recommended that a ll physicians, nurses, and paramedics who care for children complete traini ng and refresher courses on a regular basis. The purpose of this study was to determine how many pediatricians in general practice participated in PAL S courses in the first 3 years since its introduction in New Jersey. Methods: A questionnaire was sent to all PALS training centers in New Jerse y that administered the course from 1990 through 1993, The questionnaire wa s designed to determine the number of physicians trained; their specialty, and their practice setting. The questionnaire and follow-up telephone inter views focused on the perceptions of course coordinators as to why primary c are pediatricians did or did not take PALS courses, and their recommendatio ns for improving pediatrician participation. Results: Two PALS training centers provided courses for only 1 year and did not maintain records of their students. A total of 3652 individuals comple ted training in the remaining II centers. Only 649 of these students were p hysicians. The largest groups of physicians who completed training were Eme rgency Medicine physicians (248) and Pediatric residents (175), Forty-two s tudents were pediatricians in general office-based practice, which represen ts a crude rate of only 0.81% of New Jersey American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) members. Training center coordinators offered several opinions for th ese findings. Conclusions: The majority of those students who participated in PALS traini ng were not physicians. Pediatricians in general office practice accounted for a small percentage of those who could have participated. Further resear ch should be conducted to determine attitudes toward PALS training and the barriers that exist to the office-based pediatrician participating in PALS training.