“Backcountry” Injuries and Wilderness First Aid
In a recent issue of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine (Volume 20, Number 2, 2009), Thomas Welch and colleagues have written an article entitled “Wilderness First Aid: Is There an Industry Standard?” The purpose of their inquiry was to determine if an “industry standard” exists for wilderness first aid training and certification of outdoor adventure and education leaders. To attempt to answer the question, they queried regulatory authorities, national organizations, and school/college groups with regard to their requirements for first aid training of their wilderness trek leaders.
They discovered that 10 or the 22 states with guide licensure programs required any first aid training as a condition of licensure, and none specified a specific course. Of the programs requiring such training, the requirements ranged from a 6-hour standard first aid course to more structured “wilderness first responder” (WFR or “woofer”) certification. Read more »
This post, “Backcountry” Injuries and Wilderness First Aid, was originally published on Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..