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- Feb 28, 2007
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My company (university) was good enough to organize a wilderness first aid course for which I've volunteered to attend along with 11 or so other people. So far we have finished the 2nd day of a 4 day course, to be continued and completed next weekend.
Thus far the course has been excellent and far exceeded my expectations. We covered the usual site and initial assessment found in most first aid/CPR courses within the first 4 hours. What makes this course unique is the much greater attention to situational simulations. We perform between 4-5 simulations each day covering a random assortment of different problems related to circulatory system, respiration, nervous system disorders and trauma injuries.
The simulations are mostly performed outside, with the victum/patients decked out in gore make-up. Everything from pools of fake blood, chunky soup as vomit (the patient today was instructed to vomit their mouthful on the first attendant) and various simulated bone breaks, falls, accidents etc. The instructors are really quite engaging although things admittely sometimes get a bit stressful during simulations like today while playing the victum I was being hulled up two flights of concrete stairs by several frail young females (well it could have been worse
) The fact that the course is being completed in the winter makes it even more real - today we had freezing rain making all kinds of complications.
Next weekend, as I was told, will be a bit more focussed on resource usage as most of what we have learned so far involves diagnosis and reactions to critical situations. I'm looking forward to some of the situations that will involve EVACs under more challenging conditions. I know the SAR-team members would have taken several training courses more advanced than this. How about others? Who else has taken specifically wilderness first aid?
So far I have to say it is really worth the time - much more so than CPR and St. Johns Ambulance was, at least for me.
Thus far the course has been excellent and far exceeded my expectations. We covered the usual site and initial assessment found in most first aid/CPR courses within the first 4 hours. What makes this course unique is the much greater attention to situational simulations. We perform between 4-5 simulations each day covering a random assortment of different problems related to circulatory system, respiration, nervous system disorders and trauma injuries.
The simulations are mostly performed outside, with the victum/patients decked out in gore make-up. Everything from pools of fake blood, chunky soup as vomit (the patient today was instructed to vomit their mouthful on the first attendant) and various simulated bone breaks, falls, accidents etc. The instructors are really quite engaging although things admittely sometimes get a bit stressful during simulations like today while playing the victum I was being hulled up two flights of concrete stairs by several frail young females (well it could have been worse
) The fact that the course is being completed in the winter makes it even more real - today we had freezing rain making all kinds of complications.Next weekend, as I was told, will be a bit more focussed on resource usage as most of what we have learned so far involves diagnosis and reactions to critical situations. I'm looking forward to some of the situations that will involve EVACs under more challenging conditions. I know the SAR-team members would have taken several training courses more advanced than this. How about others? Who else has taken specifically wilderness first aid?
So far I have to say it is really worth the time - much more so than CPR and St. Johns Ambulance was, at least for me.
