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Ready for the Challenge: How I Became a Wilderness EMT

By Andy Burdin on 6/17/16 11:48 AM

I found myself patient-side during an intensive and grueling scenario at the Wyss Wilderness Medicine Campus in Lander, Wyoming.

“Keep holding still, you’re doing great,” I told Anna. Our eyes met as I held her hand and she took panicked breaths through the non-rebreather that was pressed against her face, filling her lungs with oxygen. Bright red blood was beginning to seep through the large pressure dressing I was holding against her abdomen to cover the 6-inch laceration there. We needed to move, but the single, tunnel-like entrance to the mine was blocked by other screaming patients on backboards and teams of rescuers, with only their headlamps visible in the thick, chalky smoke.

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Topics: Alumni, Wilderness EMT, wfa, WFR, Wilderness First Responder, wilderness medicine, Wilderness First Aid, education, WEMT, NOLS Wilderness Medicine, Wilderness Medicine

Keep Calm and Medic On: How a WEMT Course Can Transform Your Backcountry Experience

By Hadley Warner on 4/19/16 8:05 AM

I had been considering taking a Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (WEMT) course for almost three years, but something always came up to prevent it. In October of last year the idea finally became a reality and I found myself driving up a winding dirt road to the picturesque Wyss Wilderness Medicine Campus on a sunny fall afternoon. The course offered by WMI combines urban and wilderness medicine while preparing participants to sit for the National Registry exam. I was not sure what the next 25 days had in store for me, but I knew the course would serve me well in the future.

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Topics: wilderness medicine, WMI, Educators Notebook, instructor, education, WEMT, leadership, NOLS Wilderness Medicine Institute

WMI: Fun with numbers

By Casey Adams on 9/28/12 2:16 AM

Last week, NOLS Wilderness Medicine Institute (WMI) hosted
its annual staff meeting, complete with lectures, workshops, and a departmental
update from WMI Director Melissa Gray.

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Topics: NOLS, Behind the Scenes, Wyss Wilderness Medicine Campus, Portuguese, Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician, Swedish, AmeriCorps, increase, Spanish, National Outdoor Leadership School, VA, Veterans' Administration, wilderness medicine, scholarships, WMI, courses, Moving Hands, American Sign Language, WEMT

Wilderness Medicine Case Study - Test Your Skills

By William Roth on 2/15/10 4:51 AM

The Setting - There you are, hiking with a companion through the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, when suddenly there appeared a rider on a pale horse galloping across a meadow. Your attempt to access a vague memory about pale horses passes into a focus on the beauty of the horse and rider which becomes a stumbling horse and airborne rider whose graceful flight ends in a tuck and roll as the horsewoman lands on her back, tumbles, stands and runs a few steps before finally collapsing in a heap.

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Topics: medicine, wfa, WFR, test, first aid, wilderness medicine, WMI, case study, first responder, practice, wilderness, backcountry, WEMT

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