The PALS Instructor Essentials Course is designed to prepare instructor candidates to teach AHA Instructor-led and blended learning courses. The course educates instructor candidates on how to adequately use AHA Instructor teaching materials, ensure that students meet learning objectives, offer student coaching skills, provide an objective skills performance evaluation, and follow AHA Instructor and course policies. The course covers core content and discipline-specific content required to teach AHA courses.

The PALS Instructor Essentials Course is taught in a blended-learning format. AHA PALS Instructor candidates must complete the online portion, followed by the hands-on session conducted by PALS Training Center Faculty. Prior to taking this course, candidates must have a current PALS Provider course completion card. Candidates who successfully complete the PALS Instructor Essentials Course, followed by course monitoring, will receive a PALS Instructor card, valid for two years. PALS Instructors are then able to teach PALS Provider and HeartCode PALS Hands-on Sessions, as well as the PEARS Instructor-led Course.