In order to establish guidelines for comprehensive, thorough, and more consistent wilderness medical training, AORE and other organizations that hold a respectively large place in the field of wilderness medicine have signed off on the Wilderness First Responder SOP (Draft), a document that complements the Wilderness First Aid Scope of Practice.
Please consider helping AORE make a difference by reviewing this document if you have ever sponsored a WFR course, attended at WFR course, or instructed a WFR course. Does this document include the topics that you want your staff to know? As a participants of a Wilderness First Responder course, is this training enough to prepare you for backcountry medical emergencies? Are the elective topics sufficient? Please be clear, professional, and thorough.
Click here for the Wilderness First Responder Scope of Practice.
Please send your comments to Tim Mertz (). Comments received will be consolidated and then presented to the wilderness medical providers for consideration in the final document.
Who monitors this blog? Just thought I’d ask.
I’m a bit astonished that the “leading organization” of wilderness medicine has not had anyone respond to this. This saddens me. I’m a Physician Assistant and will attend the September 2010 instructor course as well as the WALS course. In my humble mind, if we are to be involved in this organization, at the instructor level, it is incumbent of us to review materials we may asked to teach. I digress.
For those who have not reviewed the draft……. it is excellent. Although I’m not a “legitament instructor” at this time, the AORE has established a great place to start. Decades ago the DOT establish standardized training for EMTs and EMT-Ps. This allows EMTs and all levels of EMS providers to provide care across the nation. This is a step in the right direction for Wilderness First Responders. With involvment in a “standardized” scope of practice we demonstrate, as a internationally recognized organization , First Responders are the initial “hands on the ground”. Those trained and certified individuals have taken it upon themselves to be more than the bystanders administering “mom and dad’s” idea of first aid. In addition it demonstrates, we as a multi-faceted organization, understand and are integral in the development and maintence of our place within the wilderness medical environment.
Now that I’ve spoken politically…..here’s the brass takes. A fall from height is a fall. A cold injury is a cold injury. Being remote is remote. Understanding survival is survival. I could go on. Teaching at the level of 110% gives the student the ability to take away the 80% they need to know in order to save a life or sustain their own. We should have standardized care in the backcountry so more of “our population” are confident in being involved in the care and extraction of our injured. When I know a first responder has the same training across the nation (globe), you or I can go in knowing an understood standard of care has been initiated.
Dave
Hey Dave,
This blog is comprised of items written by WMA Medical Director, Dr. David Johnson, and experienced instructors, though it is administered by the WMA office as well. Thank you for your feedback about the Scope of Practice. Would it be okay to pass this along to AORE?
Thank you again,
Justin
IT Specialist & Logistics Representative
Wilderness Medical Associates
Justin feel free to pass my comments along to AORE.