Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) refers to a set of clinical interventions for the urgent treatment of cardiac arrest and other life threatening medical emergencies, as well as the knowledge and skills to deploy those interventions.
Extensive medical knowledge and rigorous hands-on training and practice are required to master PALS. Only qualified health care providers (e.g. physicians, paramedics, nurses, respiratory therapists, clinical pharmacists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and other specially trained
health care providers) can provide PALS, as it requires the ability to manage the patient airway, initiate IV access, read and interpret electrocardiograms, and understand emergency pharmacology. Some health professionals, or even lay rescuers, may be trained in basic life support (BLS), especially cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR. When a sudden cardiac arrest occurs, immediate CPR is a vital link in the chain of survival.