Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent study aid, April 26, 1999
By A Customer
if you used her acls quick review study guide to get you through acls like I did, you will also benefit from this book. it's simply and clearly laid out just like acls, and is in color as well. definitely lives up to acls book.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It is what it is..., June 6, 2005
More critical reviews of this "study guide" seem to miss the point. This is *not* an in-depth study of pediatric emergency medicine. That is not what PALS is even intended to be, in the first place. PALS (and, by extension, this book) necessarilly is narrow in focus. (The cynical joke among prehospital responders is that PALS is a 16 hour course in "airway-fluid-airway-fluid-airway-fluid", and if you need to go to the drug box you've got real trouble.) Detailed exposition of drownings/toxicology (as they relate to PALS) can be found in the Pediatric Advanced Life Support textbook which the American Heart Association publishes. That is, after all, the source from which *this* book is distilled. That is all this book is intended to be: a quick review. (Earlier editions of Ms. Aehlert's books actually had "Quick Review" in the title; why they no longer do is not clear to me.) Wider-ranging discussions about emergency care for little tikes should be sought elsewhere.
I strongly disagree with one reviewer's recommendation that this book be read by non-healthcare workers seeking to know a little more than basic CPR. Please understand: this is most decidedly *not* a guide for laypeople. From a practical standpoint, what use a layperson would have for knowledge of advanced pediatric airway control, intravenous cannulation, EKG interpretation, and cardiac drug dosage recommendations is beyond me. Better to not let such esoterica rent space in your brain if you aren't certified/equipped to deploy it when called upon. On the other hand, if you're really *that* interested that you'd read it out of mere curiousity, by all means, knock yourself out. But you'd probably *still* be better served, in that case, by checking out the actual PALS text.
However, if you *are* a healthcare worker who has taken a PALS course before, understands that the AHA PALS textbook is where you go when you want the down-and-dirty details, but would like to cut through to the must-know nitty-gritty because your certification is up for renewal and you need to pass the test again: this is the book for you.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very lacking in information, October 27, 2003
As a Registered Respiratory Therapist, I took PALS last year and was very impressed with a different PALS book used by the hospital. I was hoping that this PALS book by Barbara Achlert would contain similar information. But this book contains very little information and does not even cover the basics like toxicology (a major cause childhood ER visits) and cold-water-near-drownings. And the information that this book does provide is extremely sketchy with many important factors missing that are a vital part of the picture. I can only recommend this book to people who are not health care workers and who want to know little more than the basic CPR, and even in that situation, it would be a very weak recommendation. My final word is don't waste your money on this "Study Guide".
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