WILDERNESS MEDICINE

Prerequisites & course information

Requisites: MED SC-M 810 , 811 , 812 , and 813 Course Designation: Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. DEMONSTRATE an appreciation of “Leave No Trace” principles in the backcountry, and how these ethics guide not only an individual’s approach to outdoor stewardship, but also how the first principle – “Plan Ahead and Prepare” – informs a medical provider’s approach to wilderness medicine. Audience: Graduate 2. UTILIZE basic backcountry knowledge, skills, and materials – such as navigation and emergency communication skills, water management, fire construction, waste management and sanitation – not only to illness and injury, but also to prevent illness and injury in resource-limited settings. Audience: Graduate 3. DISPLAY appropriate decision-making, risk-management, and leadership qualities when addressing environmental hazards such as extremes of temperature, precipitation, storms, altitude, wildlife, and dangerous moving water conditions. Audience: Graduate 4. PRACTICE basic backcountry skills that are foundational to safe enjoyment of the outdoors, such as land navigation using a map and compass, water treatment, stove operation, fire building, river crossings, knot tying, and gear maintenance. Audience: Graduate 5. APPLY knowledge from didactic and hands-on topics, specifically trauma topics, hypothermia, drowning and submersion, to common water hazards in a pool session led by a team of experienced whitewater kayakers and a rope session led by a team of experienced climbers. Audience: Graduate 6. APPROACH the injured patient safely in a backcountry setting using a standardized algorithm, the Patient Assessment System, paying attention to scene safety concerns, as well as standard primary and secondary surveys, care plan development, and frequent reassessment. Audience: Graduate 7. MANAGE a patient with multisystem trauma with standard and improvised means, including spinal trauma with manual and improvised spinal immobilization, blunt chest injuries with needle decompression and occlusive dressings, pelvic injuries with improvised pelvic binding, and orthopedic injuries with improvised splinting, particularly traction splinting of the femur. Audience: Graduate 8. DIFFERENTIATE high altitude illnesses, specifically acute mountain sickness, high altitude cerebral edema, and high altitude pulmonary edema, based on standard diagnostic criteria; appreciate the importance of graded ascent in prevention of these processes; and reinforce the basic medical therapy of these conditions, including descent. Audience: Graduate 9. RECOGNIZE serious diving injuries, specifically decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis, and gas emboli; understand the importance of prevention of these injuries with appropriate planning and dive table usage; and reinforce basic medical therapy for these conditions both in austere and urban settings. Audience: Graduate 10. IDENTIFY dangerous mushrooms (amanita, psilocybins, gyromitrins), plants (anticholinergic, nicotinic, cardio-toxic varieties), arachnids (black widow and brown recluse spiders, centruroides and androctonus scorpions), snakes (viperidae and elapidae), and marine organisms (cnidaria, hydrozoa, echinodermata, mollusca); differentiate their toxidromes; and understand basic treatment strategies. Audience: Graduate 11. DIFFERENTIATE degrees of hypothermia, cold and freezing injuries, and hyperthermia by understanding standard physiology and diagnostic criteria, and utilize creative means to treat these injuries in low-resource settings. Audience: Graduate 12. PREDICT the risk of lightning injuries based on meteorological conditions, learn the appropriate preventative responses to oncoming thunderstorm activity, and appropriately triage victims in a mass casualty lightning strike scenario. Audience: Graduate 13. DISTINGUISH four different methods of water treatment – heat, filtration, chemical treatment, and UV treatment – understand benefits and limitations of each, and the common gastrointestinal pathogens that they might prevent. Audience: Graduate 14. RECOGNIZE the significance of animal encounters in the backcountry, apply smart backpacking strategies to minimize unwanted encounters with predators, master the differentiation between common North American bears, and practice appropriate behavioral responses to surprise bear encounters. Audience: Graduate 15. DESCRIBE the progression of anaphylactic shock, know common risk factors, appreciate the importance of immediate treatment, and correlate symptoms with Hymenoptera envenomation. Audience: Graduate 16. APPLY an understanding of Search-And-Rescue operations while addressing pre-trip planning, backcountry risk-management and decision-making, as a means of minimizing risk and optimizing chances of rescue. Audience: Graduate Learning Outcomes: 1. DEMONSTRATE an appreciation of “Leave No Trace” principles in the backcountry, and how these ethics guide not only an individual’s approach to outdoor stewardship, but also how the first principle – “Plan Ahead and Prepare” – informs a medical provider’s approach to wilderness medicine. Audience: Graduate 2. UTILIZE basic backcountry knowledge, skills, and materials – such as navigation and emergency communication skills, water management, fire construction, waste management and sanitation – not only to illness and injury, but also to prevent illness and injury in resource-limited settings. Audience: Graduate 3. DISPLAY appropriate decision-making, risk-management, and leadership qualities when addressing environmental hazards such as extremes of temperature, precipitation, storms, altitude, wildlife, and dangerous moving water conditions. Audience: Graduate 4. PRACTICE basic backcountry skills that are foundational to safe enjoyment of the outdoors, such as land navigation using a map and compass, water treatment, stove operation, fire building, river crossings, knot tying, and gear maintenance. Audience: Graduate 5. APPLY knowledge from didactic and hands-on topics, specifically trauma topics, hypothermia, drowning and submersion, to common water hazards in a pool session led by a team of experienced whitewater kayakers and a rope session led by a team of experienced climbers. Audience: Graduate 6. APPROACH the injured patient safely in a backcountry setting using a standardized algorithm, the Patient Assessment System, paying attention to scene safety concerns, as well as standard primary and secondary surveys, care plan development, and frequent reassessment. Audience: Graduate 7. MANAGE a patient with multisystem trauma with standard and improvised means, including spinal trauma with manual and improvised spinal immobilization, blunt chest injuries with needle decompression and occlusive dressings, pelvic injuries with improvised pelvic binding, and orthopedic injuries with improvised splinting, particularly traction splinting of the femur. Audience: Graduate 8. DIFFERENTIATE high altitude illnesses, specifically acute mountain sickness, high altitude cerebral edema, and high altitude pulmonary edema, based on standard diagnostic criteria; appreciate the importance of graded ascent in prevention of these processes; and reinforce the basic medical therapy of these conditions, including descent. Audience: Graduate 9. RECOGNIZE serious diving injuries, specifically decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis, and gas emboli; understand the importance of prevention of these injuries with appropriate planning and dive table usage; and reinforce basic medical therapy for these conditions both in austere and urban settings. Audience: Graduate 10. IDENTIFY dangerous mushrooms (amanita, psilocybins, gyromitrins), plants (anticholinergic, nicotinic, cardio-toxic varieties), arachnids (black widow and brown recluse spiders, centruroides and androctonus scorpions), snakes (viperidae and elapidae), and marine organisms (cnidaria, hydrozoa, echinodermata, mollusca); differentiate their toxidromes; and understand basic treatment strategies. Audience: Graduate 11. DIFFERENTIATE degrees of hypothermia, cold and freezing injuries, and hyperthermia by understanding standard physiology and diagnostic criteria, and utilize creative means to treat these injuries in low-resource settings. Audience: Graduate 12. PREDICT the risk of lightning injuries based on meteorological conditions, learn the appropriate preventative responses to oncoming thunderstorm activity, and appropriately triage victims in a mass casualty lightning strike scenario. Audience: Graduate 13. DISTINGUISH four different methods of water treatment – heat, filtration, chemical treatment, and UV treatment – understand benefits and limitations of each, and the common gastrointestinal pathogens that they might prevent. Audience: Graduate 14. RECOGNIZE the significance of animal encounters in the backcountry, apply smart backpacking strategies to minimize unwanted encounters with predators, master the differentiation between common North American bears, and practice appropriate behavioral responses to surprise bear encounters. Audience: Graduate 15. DESCRIBE the progression of anaphylactic shock, know common risk factors, appreciate the importance of immediate treatment, and correlate symptoms with Hymenoptera envenomation. Audience: Graduate 16. APPLY an understanding of Search-And-Rescue operations while addressing pre-trip planning, backcountry risk-management and decision-making, as a means of minimizing risk and optimizing chances of rescue. Audience: Graduate