PCAR Program Description
PCAR Program Description
PCAR (Pediatric Care After Resuscitation) is the pediatric-specific version of the adult focused TCAR course, ideal for nurses who occasionally or primarily care for injured children.
The PCAR course offers emergency, perioperative, critical care, acute care, and rehabilitation providers the foundational, evidence-based information and critical thinking skills necessary to address the needs of the hospitalized, injured child. PCAR does not focus on specific psychomotor skills, which vary greatly by practice location and practice level.
PCAR covers a wide range of pathophysiologic and patient care concepts and is designed to be a broad, core-level program, rather than an advanced or specialty-specific course. Although nurses are PCAR’s largest audience, the information contained in this program has proven useful to physiotherapists, paramedics, social workers, dieticians, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, and others who interact with the hospitalized trauma patient.
For information about the course, click the Course Info tab.
Course Content
Part 1:
An introduction to basic topics relevant to the care of the hospitalized pediatric trauma patient:
- The trauma care spectrum
- The biomechanics of trauma
- The body's response to injury
Part 2:
Learners participate in interactive expanding case scenarios that address the care of hospitalized pediatric patients with injuries to specific body systems. Each module introduces specific trauma care concepts including pathophysiology, patient assessment, and complications. Surgical, medical, and nursing management options and outcome criteria are introduced while analyzing cases of children with:
- Thoracic injury
- Abdominal injury
- Musculoskeletal injury
- Head injury
- Spine and spinal cord injury
Each interactive expanding case scenario promotes critical thinking, knowledge synthesis, and clinical reasoning skills by inviting learners to:
- Incorporate injury biomechanics information
- Analyze clinical assessment data
- Suggest appropriate care interventions
- Identify individuals at risk for deterioration
- Prevent, recognize, and manage complications
- Understand current trends and issues in trauma patient care
- Predict each patient's care trajectory
- Set realistic goals and evaluate outcomes
Learner Outcomes
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Describe the trauma continuum of care
- Explain the biomechanics of common injuries
- Anticipate specific wounds and complications based on mechanism of injury information
- Discuss the body's multisystem responses to traumatic insults
- Incorporate physical assessment, imaging studies, and laboratory data to evaluate the hospitalized trauma patient
- Describe appropriate medial, surgical, and nursing interventions for frequently encountered injuries
- Interact with interdisciplinary team members to provide timely care to injured patients
- Prevent, identify, and manage complications common to the hospitalized trauma patient
- Identify realistic trauma patient goals and evaluate care outcomes
- Address the psychosocial needs of hospitalized trauma patients and their family members
