APLS Online: Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few frequently asked questions. If your question is not answered here, send an e-mail to apls@aplsonline.com

Question: I am a program director at an emergency medicine residency program, and I would like to use the APLS materials to teach residents. Can I do that?

Answer: Absolutely! The APLS teaching-and-learning system has lots of value outside of the traditional APLS Courses conducted for CME credit. If you do not already have the APLS Instructor's Toolkit CD-ROM, I suggest you order it from AAP, ACEP, or Jones and Bartlett. It includes ready-to-use PowerPoint presentations and hundreds of other great teaching resources to help you help your residents be prepared to treat emergencies in pediatric patients. You can use the Lectures and Small Group Discussions for didactic sessions, as well as the Skill Sheets in the Skill Stations folder to help you teach specific procedures. There are many great handouts, and there is a Test Bank of multiple-choice questions. Of course, the student resource manual, APLS: The Pediatric Emergency Medicine Resource, Fourth Edition, would have enormous value to your residents. It covers a broad range of pediatric conditions-not just the ones that are life-threatening-and it is all case-based, which makes for more interesting, real-life reading. If your program can purchase one for each resident, they would be getting an enormous amount of information at a cost that is considerably lower than other textbooks of this size. And if you are an approved APLS Course Director, you can buy the student resource manuals at quantity discount rates.

Question: I am very interested in doing the 1-day course. How will it work?

Answer: Great! The APLS Steering Committee wants the new Fourth Edition to be flexible to accommodate lots of different ways to provide APLS education and training. To offer a 1-day course, a Course Director will begin by announcing that he or she is offering the 1-day option. Students will register with the Course Director, then select six chapters from the student resource manual for self-study, with the Course Director's approval. The student will then read and study those chapters and go to www.APLSOnline.com to answer the Check Your Knowledge questions for all six chapters to verify that he or she has completed the self-study. These answers will be e-mailed to the Course Director, and the Course Director will notify the student of their receipt. If the student receives a grade of 70% or better on the Check Your Knowledge questions, he or she is then eligible to attend the 1-day course. The schedule for the 1-day course is very similar to Day 1 of the recommended 2-day APLS Course schedule. The student will attend the course, take the APLS Course Completion Examination at the end, and receive the CME credits that the Course Director has obtained from a sponsoring organization. Within a few weeks of taking the course, the student should receive the APLS Course Completion Card from the Course Director if he or she made a grade of 70% or better on the examination. Remember, the examination covers the entire student resource manual, so the student will need to study all 22 chapters in preparation.

Question: My doctors do not have a need for the wallet-sized APLS Course Completion Card. Do we have to make them take the APLS examination?

Answer: No, the APLS Course Completion Examination is optional. It is a new feature of the Fourth Edition. We added it because a lot of people who have taken the APLS Course in the past wanted a Course Completion Card and we wanted to accommodate them. Some institutions also require cards that have a renewal requirement, so you may wish to check with your institution. Your students will still get whatever continuing medical education credit is available to them for completing the course. However, please note that the 1 hour allotted for the APLS Course Completion Examination is included in the 14.5 total hours required for the course. If you are not going to use this 60-minute time slot for the examination, you will need to add another Lecture, Small Group Discussion, or Skill Station.

Question: My students already know basic airway procedures. Do I have to do that Skill Station?

Answer: The APLS Steering Committee feels strongly that teaching airway procedures is a key component of an APLS Course.

Question: We are a community hospital, and we rarely see trauma in kids. Can I substitute something for the trauma lecture? I would really like to cover the neonatal material instead.

Answer: As the Course Director, you are in the best position to know what your students need to learn. So, yes, you can cover a different topic as long as you stay within the total APLS curriculum. But before you decide to drop a module in the recommended 2-day schedule, remember that you have 4 hours to fill of your own choosing already-1 hour in Day 1, and 3 hours in Day 2. Could you put the Neonatal Emergencies module somewhere in these 4 hours, still add three more modules you need, and still do the Trauma Lecture? Look at the list of optional modules and see which ones will be of most benefit to your students-and their patients. Remember, you can do a Lecture, or a Small Group Discussion, or a Skill Station, or all three!