Worth the trouble to keep PALS certification?

[fiznat]

I am currently certified in BLS, ACLS, and PALS: all of which are due to expire next month. My school is doing refresher courses (at our cost) for graduating students, but I'm considering dropping the PALS certification as my residency program doesn't require it (they only want CPR and ACLS). My only concern is that I may need PALS certification in PGY-2+ for moonlighting purposes. I understand a lot of moonlighting opportunities are in emergency departments, and I imagine that they would want the people they employ to have the full complement of AHA certifications. Is that correct?

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[gutonc]

Are you doing IM? Nobody will give a s*** about PALS. Your moonlighting options aren't really going to be in EDs, more likely nocturnist or UC stuff.

 

[fiznat]

Yeah I'm doing IM. I'm surprised to hear that about ED moonlighting... I feel like I hear a lot about IM residents doing that kind of work, but maybe there's some selection bias or something.

 

[NurWollen]

Are you doing IM? Nobody will give a s*** about PALS. Your moonlighting options aren't really going to be in EDs, more likely nocturnist or UC stuff.

Well, wouldn't the urgent care want him to be PALS certified?

 

[gutonc]

Well, wouldn't the urgent care want him to be PALS certified?

I've worked UC. Nobody asked me for it. BLS only required. You think those Walgreen's NP-in-a-boxes are ACLS/PALS/ATLS? Same thing. That's what 911 is for.

 

[NurWollen]

I've worked UC. Nobody asked me for it. BLS only required. You think those Walgreen's NP-in-a-boxes are ACLS/PALS/ATLS? Same thing. That's what 911 is for.

Just out of curiosity, did you see kids that came in to the urgent care? I know internists aren't really trained for kids, but then again you had exposure to peds in med school. I'm just curious because I'm really interested in inpatient medicine, but I'm not sure if I want to give up kids altogether, or adults altogether. Maybe I need to look in to med-peds.

 

[gutonc]

Just out of curiosity, did you see kids that came in to the urgent care? I know internists aren't really trained for kids, but then again you had exposure to peds in med school. I'm just curious because I'm really interested in inpatient medicine, but I'm not sure if I want to give up kids altogether, or adults altogether. Maybe I need to look in to med-peds.

I only did a little UC. And they had Peds on site as well so no, I never saw Peds.

 

[NurWollen]

I only did a little UC. And they had Peds on site as well so no, I never saw Peds.

Cool. Thanks for the info.