Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician

     I have just returned from taking the Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician course run by WEMSI. It was located at the Larch Hill Boy Scout Camp near Dublin.

     This course was intense, informative and confidence building. It is a programme that I will be encouraging all of my WFR students to attend. It starts at the First Responder level and adds quite a lot of hands on scenario and advanced medical training.


     The course was geared towards mountain rescue personnel and most of the instructors come from that background. This style of medicine focuses on the fact that you will have access to the hospital within a couple of hours.

     The curriculum is taught by Advanced Paramedics and wilderness physicians. Students are encouraged to have a fair amount of medical training before attendance. In my class we had doctors and Advanced Paramedics, EMTs, and a few with only a two day REC course. They were struggling with the curriculum and the hands on scenarios. I don't know how many of them actually made it.

     The instructor staff were professional and passionate about the material. Most of them came from backgrounds where they actually practised what they were teaching. The housing and food were also excellent. It is a catered affair with warm and roomy barracks to sleep in.

     If you want to learn Mountain Rescue Medicine or just be able to take care of your friends and family if they get injured then the following order of courses will do nicely:

     1st. Take a two day introductory course. This could be the REC 2, or the Outdoor First Aid course from IPNA.

     2nd. Take the Wilderness First Responder course from IPNA, WEMSI or Remote Emergency Care.

     3rd. Take the Wilderness EMT course from WEMSI.

     If you really like what you have learned the next logical step in your medical eduction will take you into the medical professional options. This could be a Paramedic Course, or a Remote Medic Practitioner.

    For those of you interested in learning medical care for people who work or play far from the hospital or civilisation there are better options for learning Remote Medicine.
   The Remote & Expedition Emergency Medical Technician is designed from the ground up for people who need to know how to take care of all the injuries and illnesses that they might face in third world countries or working in semi permissive environments.

     Regardless on how far you wish to push your medical knowledge just remember that the more medicine you know the safer your friends and family are. 

More information can be found at www.ipna.ie.