Wilderness Advanced Life Support

Course Description:

This program’s primary goal is to apply current medical knowledge and critical thinking for use in remote/resource challenged patient care settings. It is targeted toward advanced care medical practitioners.

The Wilderness Advanced Life Support (WALS) is Wilderness Medical Associates International’s most advanced level course. Our 36-hour course is run over 4 days (5 days for courses requiring translations). It is open to certified or licensed advanced level medical practitioners involved or interested in rescue, mass casualty, and remote outdoor environments or urban areas in disaster or crisis. This constantly-evolving course is highlighted by discussions of new and controversial ideas and the appropriate application of technologies. The learning environment is challenging, stimulating, and fun.

All education content presented in this activity has been reviewed and validated as appropriate in keeping with sound scientific principles.

Prior to enrolling in a course, please review our Functional Position Description. The criteria set forth in this document allows students to self-assess their ability to meet the demands of both a WMAI course as well as the demands of a certified wilderness medical provider in the field.

General objectives for this course include:

By the completion of this course participants should be able to:

1. Understand the challenges and limitations of working in a remote/resource challenged, patient care setting.
2. Explain principles of preventive care for patients and team members when faced by environmental challenges.
3. Perform an accurate patient assessment when access to advanced diagnostics are not available
4. Utilize useful medical and basic rescue equipment often available in a remote/resource challenged patient care setting.
5. Via case studies and in practice during patient-oriented drills, demonstrate decision making ability for treatments and evacuations in remote resource/challenged patient care settings.
6. Decide which medications and equipment that might be useful and appropriate in a variety of remote/resource challenged patient care settings.

This course has been approved for Fellowship in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine (FAWM) credits through the Wilderness Medical Society. Actual credits awarded depend on personal credit needs and history.

Host Information:

Room and Board:

Food is available in Jackson Hole / For Lodging there are many hotel options in downtown Jackson Hole.

Instructors: