Development of a Wilderness and Travel Medicine Rotation in an Academic Setting

Abstract

Wilderness medicine courses tend to teach similar topics, but they can differ with respect to philosophy, teaching methods, and financing. Our not-for-profit course is academically based and is similar to other programs with regard to presentations of didactic material and outdoor training, but there are also important differences in teaching methodology that are not used by other programs to date. Innovative methods, such as problem-based learning and use of the human patient simulator, which are unique to our program, have been successful in our courses and may be of use to wilderness medical education. We hope that sharing information about our program will help make wilderness medicine training more standardized and uniform.

Medical Student Electives in Wilderness Medicine: Curriculum Guidelines

“…Course directors also have varied experiences and skill sets and therefore may design courses to emphasize their individual priorities that they have developed in their wilderness medicine practice. [5][6][7] By examining the data it is clear that there are varied ideas among experts about what should and should not be covered in an elective. This survey did not delve into methods for teaching these topics, which can also vary greatly.…”

Student Electives in Wilderness Medicine: Curriculum Guidelines—An Introduction

“…In March of 2000, the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of New Mexico introduced a student elective in wilderness medicine. 1 Their program was adapted from Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (WEMT) courses, and included both classroom didactic sessions and outdoor scenarios in a variety of wilderness settings. It also included outdoor survival training.…”

High Altitude Illness

“…The UIAA diploma is currently offered in France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands [25]. In the USA the WMS runs relevant courses and some universities are setting up programmes [26].…”