Kat and Ted earn their Wilderness First Responder

30 January, 2009

For the last two weeks, Kat and I got to skip out on work in order to attend a special Wilderness First Responder (WFR) class being hosted by the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute. The course was taught by two instructors from the NOLS Wilderness Medical Institute, the premier organization for wilderness medical instruction.

Wilderness medicine is a special set of first aid and medical practices that are necessary when definitive care (a modern hospital or an ambulance with highly trained EMT's) is more than two hours away. An 80-hour WFR course trains rescuers how to manage a patient and a scene if they are the first to arrive. The course teaches a well-rounded skillset, and is more about critical thinking, problem solving, and improvisation than about the memorization of lists or protocols. In the United States, WFR is the definitive wilderness medical certification.

Kat had previously been certified as a WFR, but her certification had lapsed, while I was looking to upgrade my Wilderness Advanced First Aid to a WFR. CMRCA is the only adventure company in Chiang Mai that has certified WFR's on staff, but we think it is exceptionally important to maintaining safety and excellence in everything that we do. But aside from company policy, Kat and I wanted to get our WFR's because once you know a little first aid, you think "Why doesn't everyone know this?" and "I can't wait until I can learn more!"

Like every other wilderness medical course I've ever taken, this course was fast-paced, hands-on, exceptionally interesting, and a lot of fun. What made this course special for me was the confidence that I was left with after the course finished.

It was also special because our two excellent WMI Instructors, John and Tyson, kept things fun and fresh. Ten consecutive 8+ hour days of first aid has the potential to be exceptionally boring, but their wonderful team-teaching style made me sad when the 80 hours were over. Wilderness First Aid always seems to engage my brain in a way that other topics simply do not - when I finished this course, I thought, "Maybe I should have been a doctor."

Thanks to Mark Ritchie at ISDSI for filming the course and putting together a fun video that may just save lives: ironically enough, Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" provides the perfect cadence for performing chest compressions during CPR.

Video Credit: Mark Ritchie and ISDSI

Posted by: Ted Conbeer