Advanced Cardiac Life Support Course

   I just finished another ACLS course. This was the first one that I have taken since moving here to Ireland. It is still the same curriculum and still quite difficult to pass. It has been eight years since I took my last one and I still struggle with the drug list.

Medical Kits

   Whether you are in the woods or in town it is important to have medical training 
and a good medical kit available.

   During our Basic Bushcraft course we discuss how important it is to always have a small survival tin with you at all times. You can make them small enough that you forget about it somewhere in one of your pockets. You should have one of these kits in every jacket, jumper, and coat that you own.
   The same preparation is important with a medical kit. You don't need a large kit containing massive trauma supplies. Put a few plasters, tablets, steristrips and an alcohol wipes into your bushcraft kit or a separate medical kit.

IPNA students in Chile earthquake

   Two students who attended bushcraft and medical courses last fall experienced several earthquakes in the past weeks while backpacking around South America.

   They were camping in very remote areas of Chile close to the epicenter of the earthquake. Luckily they were not injured. They were camping in the Circuito Condores National Park. There were landslides close by but they were unharmed.

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.

Community Oriented Medicine

   Last week we talked about how modern medicine is coming to an abrupt end. We showed how medicine is completely dependent on fossil fuels and unlimited energy sources in order to maintain the current levels of care. This week we are going to talk about how to design a New Medical Model for providing sustainable healthcare in the coming change.

The Coming Collapse of Modern Medicine

   Modern medicine cannot continue to operate with the current standards in which it is operating. There are three major reasons for this: First, medicine is extremely energy dependent. What happens when cheap energy is no longer available? Second, basing medicine exclusively on scientific research provides a large margin of error, plus the ethics of who is funding the research. And finally, petroleum based plastics are used for a large portion of medical care. What happens when petroleum based plastics are no longer available?

Medical Anthropology

Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak,men mistake medicine for magic.-Thomas Szasz

            Medical anthropology is an emerging science bridging the concentrations of anthropology, wilderness medicine, and history. As a discipline of anthropology it connects the anthropological theory and methods with the study of health, illness and healing. It is a focus that first emerged in the mid nineteenth century and has rapidly grown to become one of the largest areas of research and practice within anthropology (Baer, 1997). Specialties can be found within the medical anthropology spectrum.

Sustainable Medicine 

   Imagine a world without oil. If that is too much of a stretch, imagine a world where oil is scarce and energy is too expensive for the average person(1). Imagine for profit healthcare management organizations struggling to keep business in the black amidst the spiraling energy costs.  

Ethnobotanical Applications for Wilderness Medicine

Ethnobotanical Applications for Wilderness Medicine

"Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.”Mourning Dove Salish, 1888-1936       

Seaweed Collecting

   With the weather finally coming around after a rough and wet winter, Anna and I finally found a day to bike down to the local sandy cove. We found three types of seaweed that we enjoy, but it was the Kelp that was the main focus of my search.

Common Wilderness Diseases

Introduction to Wilderness Medicine

Wilderness medicine incorporates many different methods and practices of medicine. It borrows from emergency medicine, sports medicine, military medicine, and environmental medicine (Backer, 1995) It incorporates a unique spectrum of topics and special perspectives that facilitate it as a distinct field of study. Wilderness medicine can be seen as patient care in a remote environment. This means that anyone who is more than one hour from getting care from a hospital or ambulance crew is under the protocols of wilderness medicine. Wilderness activities such as hiking, back packing, rock-climbing, skiing, snowboarding, all forms of kayaking, and wilderness therapy are often held in places that facilitate the rules of wilderness medicine.

A New Medical Model

   There have been a few discussions on the web regarding the coming collapse of healthcare. More educated people than myself have weighed in with excellent points. Look here and here.

   Peak oil, a falling economy, or even a profound environmental catastrophe could bring about about a collapse of healthcare. It doesn't matter how far in the distance this event might be. It is imperative that we begin to set in motion the changes that will minimize the impact that it will have on the ability to care for the sick and injured.

   On a national level, the monies needed to continue to provide services are no longer within the countries' coffers. Without the ability to purchase petrol for the ambulance, medical supplies for the individual departments, or to pay for electricity to put all of this in motion, providing

   I wish to discuss this on a more local level. It is only a matter of time before each nation will not be able to afford to give medical care to the people. Once again, we will have to rely on our own community and family for medical care.