EMD850B

Goals/Objectives:
1. To develop an appreciation for medicine in the wilderness and austere environments.
2. Earn certification in Advanced Wilderness Life Support (AWLS)
3. Develop an organized, systemic approach for approaching and assessing a patient in various wilderness settings.
4. Specifically understand unique diagnoses and treatments for the following wilderness-related topics: altitude, avalanche, heat-induced injuries, cold-induced injuries, lightning, submersion, dive medicine, water disinfection, dentistry, dermatology, eye injuries, ENT injuries, infectious diseases, musculoskeletal injuries, wound management and common medical problems.
5. To be able to plan for potential medical problems based on group size and type of activity. Then to be able to improvise and adapt when the unforeseen occurs.
6. To develop appropriate triage and multitasking abilities for various scenarios including multi-patient casualties.
7. In a practical setting, be able to fashion various splints, dressings, tourniquets and litters with improvised materials.
8. In a practical setting, be able to approach a patient, secure the environment, diagnose pathology, provide treatment, arrange evacuation and communicate this to those involved.
9. To see beyond Wilderness Medicine as 'vacation medicine' or 'doctor tourism' to its true applicability in austere or impromptu environments, such as rural, humanitarian or mass casualty settings.
Format: This course consists of didactic lectures in the classroom, as well as a practical session in the wilderness. The didactics will be Monday through Thursday, 3-4 lectures each day, for 2 weeks. The final day of didactics there is an AWLS certification exam. There will then be a Saturday practical session in a wilderness setting somewhere within an hour of Tucson (location TBD). This practical session will involve breaking into smaller groups and coming upon scenarios where the students will have to take charge, assign roles and apply the skills they've learned. (The scenarios will be manned by volunteers in moulage.) Each group will be observed/evaluated by a faculty member or lecturer.

Evaluation Methods:
Faculty and/or departmental residents/fellows will evaluate the student on:
o quality of the student's paper synthesizing the current literature on a particular wilderness medicine topic. These topics will be presented in class by the students.
o factual/content knowledge (Taking the AWLS certification exam)

Faculty and/or departmental residents/fellows will evaluate the student's clinical performance by assessing the student's:
o Clinical performance in the practical scenarios
o Ability to assess scene safety
o Ability to obtain history and perform interview
o Ability to develop likely diagnosis(es)
o Ability to initiate appropriate treatment, including medications, splints, litters, pt comfort, etc.
o Ability to assess evacuation needs, and if required, develop an appropriate evacuation plan
o Quality of leadership and performing specific roles during the practical scenarios
o Ability to assign roles
o Ability to take roles
o Ability to practice closed loop communication

Spring