Wilderness EMT Bridge

Are You already an EMS Provider or other Medical Professional? True North stands apart from other wilderness medicine schools because our Wilderness EMT Bridge course bridges your front-country medical training with wilderness survival training so that you are equipped with the skills, gear, and knowledge to better meet the demands and realities of treating patients in remote and austere environments.

After all, in a wilderness emergency, you likely won’t have access to all of your equipment in your Emergency Department or your ambulance. Besides, would you even know how to quickly build an emergency shelter, start a fire, purify water to cleanse a wound or hydrate your patient, or even signal for help? Without these skills, the simple reality is that, in wilderness environments, even a medical professional becomes little more than a first responder.

During our WEMT Bridge course, you will learn the dynamics of providing medical care within a wilderness context. First, you will learn the importance of scene safety so that you can not only better protect your patient, but yourself as well. Then, you will review the patient assessment protocol, which is the framework of all emergency care from the first-aider to paramedic, but with added elements of working in remote locations. From there, you will learn how to deal with traumatic injuries, like sprains, fractures, wounds, burns, and spinal cord injury management. Then you will learn to deal with illness, including heat and cold related, altitude related, and allergic reactions.

Just as importantly, though, you will learn the same approach to wilderness survival that is taught in the U.S. military. You will learn about the Seven Priorities of any wilderness emergency — Psychology, Medical, Shelter, Fire, Signal, Water, and Food — by emphasizing basic preparedness, like tools and supplies, adaptability, and a realistic approach to improvisation. This way, you’ll be able to protect your patient and yourself until rescue or relief arrives.

Highlights

So how does our Wilderness EMT training differ from your medical training? In some ways, you will find the training and issues very similar, but in most other ways you will find it vastly different. First, you will learn to deal with issues that you typically won’t find in your urban patient population, like snake bites, moderate to severe hypothermia, and lightning strikes. Also, in wilderness medical care there is a greater emphasis on improvisation, so we will train you to better view the equipment in your pack, or what happens to be laying around, as appropriate resources. In turn, the standard of care in wilderness environments, which is outlined by the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS), may differ substantially from your state protocols. Most importantly, many medical providers only deal with patients for brief periods (maybe just the ambulance ride to the hospital) and in teams, but as a WEMT, you may need to care for your patient for hours, or even days, all by yourself.

• Learn the importance of scene safety to protect yourself and your patient
• Review the patient assessment protocol with added elements for working in remote locations
• Learn to deal with traumatic injuries, like sprains, fractures, wounds, burns, and spinal cord injury management
• Learn to deal with common outdoor illnesses, including heat and cold related, altitude related, and allergic reactions

Our clients take this course for a wide variety of reasons. Some take it because they play or work in the outdoors, while many others also complete the program because they want to take their medical training to the next level so that they can work or volunteer in search-and-rescue, disaster relief, or in healthcare missions.

Continuing Education Credits

Continuing-Education Hours: This program is approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Health for thirty-five (35) continuing-education credits for EMT, AEMT, Paramedic, and PHRN.

Requirements: Current certification for pre-hospital provider (EMT, AEMT, Paramedic or PHRN) or front-country provider (RN, PA, DO, MD); and healthcare provider CPR.

Certification Length: Three (3) years