Wilderness Medicine

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Comment by Gregg A. Craft on June 4, 2009 at 7:56am

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all the help! And Seth, I'm gonna check out some of those links for schools, they sound interesting.

Comment by Seth Collings Hawkins on June 3, 2009 at 1:44pm

Gregg, I see you are in Florida. There is an on-line non-partisan calendar that tracks all wilderness medicine trainings known in southern Appalachian states (VA/WV/NC/SC/TN/GA): http://www.appwildmed.org/events.php

The key is that wilderness EMS courses are essentially unregulated (for the wilderness part), so it is up to the buyer to determine the quality of the school they choose. There are a number of very well established schools, like Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS, Wilderness Medical Associates, Wilderness Medicine Outfitters and SOLO. These all tend to offer very high-quality instruction but may require travel and expense. More local schools may be less expensive and more convenient, but be sure you check on the reputation and curriculum first.

There are a couple other options too. Increasingly academic programs are springing up. I know University of Utah and Western Carolina University both have degree programs in wilderness EMS for paramedics (and WCU's is available for on-line enrollment, so it is accessible from Florida). Many local community colleges are offering courses with college credit. Remote Medical International has set up an interesting niche slightly different from the other big schools. And of course there are traditional rescue courses offered by state agencies and private groups in technical rescue, rescue technician skills and survival that often overlap with wilderness medical training. The Wilderness Medical Society offers conferences but these are often more academic and less EMS-focused.

Just some initial thoughts. Hope this helps.

Comment by Steven Lichtenberg on June 3, 2009 at 1:39pm

There are several independent instructors that teach these programs as well. I teach Wilderness First Responder about 3 times a year and wilderness EMT whenever I can get enough students to make up a class. I usually do a progression course so you already have to have FR or EMT-B to do the wilderness program. This makes it take much less time (some of us work) and is less expensive.

I did just pass Instructor II,III in MD. so I suppose I could teach the urban class as well (not yet - no time).

Comment by Shana Tarter on June 3, 2009 at 1:04pm

You might consider the Wilderness Medicine Institute's Wilderness Upgrade for Medical Professionals course. It is a 5-day course pre-approved for 48 hours of continuing education and offers Wilderness EMT certification for current EMTs/Paramedics. http://www.nols.edu/wmi/courses/wildupgrademedpros.shtml

Comment by Eric on June 3, 2009 at 11:54am

Go to SOLO in NH, you get the EMT-B and W in a month, the price includes meals and lodging and the instruction is outstanding. They also have a great facility, located in a great area for Wilderness Medicine.

Comment by Gregg A. Craft on June 3, 2009 at 8:24am

I've always wanted to take a Wilderness EMS course. Of the schools out there, are they about equal as to cost and quality? Any one school you like better than the other?

Comment by Jodi on February 23, 2009 at 1:43am

Our Thurston County Sherriff Office has required from our SAR units, proof that an EMS unit is needed in Search and Rescue.
The standard ALS and BLS response times in the 10 minutes in town. Rural is 30 minutes on the average.

More in the wilderness areas, by up to a hour.

Our aim is to assist the victims of the rescue as soon as possible. We would like feed back as to what your area does with respect to this issue.

Our average search is 8 to 24 hours long. With no EMS other than a few First aid People, we wanted to advance our training in responses for our victims. The care needed was more advanced than a first aid level. We received the Green light over 6 months ago to attend a county provided EMT Training.
We have worked to address the protocols in our jurisdiction.

Now 5 days before EMT training starts the SO wants us to do an essay and prove our worth or no training!

We do not transport but provide an on site EMS till a more Advanced transport arrives. Can you help with your counties EMS and SAR protocols? STATS would be also welcomed. Email me at AzTRAUMAMOMMA@aol.com

Comment by Steve Pack on January 17, 2009 at 11:22pm

Check out the following links:

http://www.soloschools.com/
http://wildmed.com/ (WEMT in Maine, April 2009)
http://www.nols.edu/wmi/courses/schedule.shtml

Comment by Pablo J. de la Torre on January 16, 2009 at 4:00pm

Does anyone know of any upcoming wilderness EMT class coming up for the northeast? NY/NJ/or northeast Pa?

Comment by Seth Collings Hawkins on January 9, 2009 at 2:06pm

For those of you in the southern Appalachians, here is a resource tool:
www.appwildmed.org

For those of you on Facebook, you may be interested in this group:
www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=20366770103