History of ​PEPP

The Pediatric Education for Prehospital Professionals™ (PEPP™)Course has a rich history. It is the product of over  27 years of collaboration, brainstorming, review, and revision by many dedicated physicians, nurses, paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and EMS educators interested in improving the quality of prehospital care for children.
The PEPP Course is the culmination of the best, most current, and most innovative educational efforts in prehospital pediatrics, including the pediatric components of the National EMS Education Standards for EMTs, advanced emergency medical technicians (AEMTs), and paramedics.

The PEPP Course began in 1990 as a distant vision of the California Pediatric Emergency and Critical Care Coalition and the California EMS for Children (EMSC) Project, funded by the California EMS Authority.

In 1992, the coalition's Pediatric Education for Paramedics (PEP) Task Force joined with the American College of Emergency Physician's Pediatric Emergency Medicine Committee and published Pediatric Education Guidelines for Paramedics. These guidelines were the first national consensus curriculum on prehospital pediatrics. Subsequently, a National PEP Task Force was formed which brought together representatives from the Florida Technical Advisory Panel for EMSC, the California PEP Task Force, and several other pediatric prehospital education groups. The new National PEP Task Force was funded by the Florida Emergency Medicine Foundation, who assumed a major leadership role in the project, and by the California EMS Authority.

In 1995, the National PEP Task Force produced its first course, the PEP Course, which built upon the outstanding work of several state EMSC projects, especially The Washington Pediatric Prehospital Care Project headed by Dena Brownstein, MD, and The California Pediatric Airway Project by Marianne Gausche-Hill, MD.

In 2000 the AAP rolled out the first PEPP courses.  Over the years, the course and textbook have been revised with the most up-to-date medical information. The Fourth Edition of PEPP was released in 2020, which included an enhanced hybrid course, class interactivity options, and a PEPP Course Coordinator Orientation Update. Shortly after the initial course release, PEPP Continuing Education (Cont-Ed) Modules were launched. 
On September 15, 2026, the Fifth Edition of PEPP was released and introduced a new collaboration between the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and RQI Partners to provide an enhanced learner experience. The Fifth Edition features a fully updated structure where learners complete an online True Adaptive™ eLearning course prior to an in-person skills session. Learners will experience online learning content that adapts to the needs of each learner while supporting diverse learning styles. The fifth edition also offers  mobile-friendly modules, all-new skills videos, step-by-step demonstrations, high-quality clinical photography, and updated clinical content including a revised PEPP Textbook aligned with the latest American Heart Association and AAP guidelines for ECC and CPR.

Today, the PEPP program has more than 16,000 instructors who have conducted over 41,000 domestic and international courses. To date, PEPP has trained more than 425,000 providers.

The PEPP Course is a dynamic teaching tool that will be subject to ongoing review and modification, in concert with changes in the science of emergency pediatrics and advances in EMS educational design and methodology. The National PEPP Steering Committee is committed to continual course improvement and dissemination to a national and international audience.