Annals of emergency medicine
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To survey emergency medical services (EMS) providers on a national level to determine and describe their perspective regarding their initial and continuing education (CE) needs in pediatrics. ⋯ Surveyed practicing nationally registered EMS providers have infrequent contact with pediatric patients and have acquired most of their pediatric knowledge and skills from CE. In general, these providers are comfortable with their personal and their system's ability to care for children, but clearly support the need for required pediatric CE and identify the birth to 3-year age range as the priority for an educational focus. Cost, travel distance, and availability of pediatric CE are barriers that should be considered if pediatric CE is to be required of EMS providers.