The follow-up on the training course of pediatric advanced life support

Two parts are included in this article. First, to improve the training course in pediatric advanced life support (PALS), we held a 2-day PALS training course on March 28 and 29, 1999. A pretest, posttest, and survey questionnaire were given to each participant. Of the 143 participating in the 2-day PALS course, 137 completed the study. The mean pretest score was 70.2 (SD = 11.5) and the mean posttest score was 86.9 (SD = 9.1). There was significant improvement noted after the 2-day PALS training course (p < 0.001). The 2-day PALS training course resulted in greater improvement in scores compared with the previous 1-day PALS training course in some certain groups of participants. The number of participants complaining that they were too rushed to get the best learning result declined from 71 of 106 (66.3%) taking the 1-day training course to 43 of 137 (31.4%) taking the 2-day training course. Second, a same written test was given to the 129 participants who had finished a 1-day PALS training course one year previously to evaluate the participants' retention of knowledge after 1 year. Of 82 responders who took the 1-year follow up test, 75 were from the medical center. The score of the follow-up test for these 75 participants showed a significant decline when compared with the posttest, except for those receiving another training course of advanced life support during the follow-up year. We conclude that the 2-day PALS training course is better than the 1-day PALS training course. Those who participate in the pediatric critical or emergent care had better receive the 2-day PALS training course. The participants receiving the 1-day PALS training showed a significant decline in their knowledge after 1 year, and they should reinforce their knowledge in the following years.