this weekend, i took a 16 hour wilderness first aid course with remote medical international at discovery park in seattle. so from 845 – 545 on saturday and sunday, i listened, learned, and practiced every aspect of wilderness first aid training that i could have ever imagined. and now, i have all the necessary training to help, treat, and possibly save injured, sick, and wounded patients in wilderness settings. oh man. what a trip.
on saturday morning i took the bus over to discovery park. i had never been there before and really had no idea of its enormity. i mean, geezus this place is big. i took what turned out to be the wrong bus, and ended up on the wrong side of the park, with 15 minutes to spare. so i wondered around for a bit, asking people if they knew where the education center was. i got a few points and people telling me “oh yeah, just follow this trail.” but as it turns out, being on the completely opposite side of the park, it took me the better part of an hour to get there. so, an hour late and a little nervous, i walked into a packed classroom and sat down. the two instructors (kate earle and steve guthrie) were exceptional. they were great teachers, relatable funny people in general, and above all worked tremendously well as a team. this was kate’s first time instructing a course, but steve has been leading these classes since 2001. since i was signed up for the course by one of their colleagues tom, my “boss” (i nanny for his kids), they were told to pick on me. as soon as they found out who i was (“you’re the nanny!”) they used me for many demonstrations from there on out; first announcing to the class who i was and explaining that they planned on giving me shit, they encouraged everyone else to feel free to do so as well. i responded accordingly, assuring the class that i could hang.
over the course of the two days, with the aid of our instructors and this colorful text book, we learned and practiced everything from complete patient assessment to taking vital signs; the signs and symptoms of shock to recognizing and stabilizing spinal injuries; head injuries to wound management; burns to the treatment of athletic injuries of all types (sprains, strains, fractures, dislocations); hypothermia to heat stroke, animal bites to anaphylaxis (aka bee stings… sounds like im medically trained when i say it like that), and acute abdominal illness. we were put in sample scenarios (with fake blood and amateur acting) where half the class would be lead into the woods and given a set of symptoms or injuries and the other half would have to find them, assess the sitch, and treat the patient. one scenario that we were given involved a patient that had been climbing a tree, fell, and was stuck in the tree with a possilbe broken spine. our group had to CAREFULLY remove the patient from his tangled position in the tree, all the while stabilizing his head, neck, and back. our group did really well and successfully got him to the ground without causing further damage. it was awesome!
the class was very diverse and full of people from all walks of life. an older couple in their late 60s or early 70s. a handful of 50-somethings. several 40 and 30-somethings. and a good number of 20-somethings. people who lead boyscout camps and summer day camps. people who took yearly camping trips with their families. people who planned to pursue a further career in wilderness training. and silly kids like me who just wanted the personal knowledge (and had their boss pay for the course).
after the course was over, i talked to the instructors for a while about other courses that i could take if i wanted (and planned to get a beer with steve really soon). and i think i do want. there is a wilderness EMT course coming up in may (and maybe at other times as well) that i think i am really interested in. the only problem is that the course (i think it is 10 days) costs almost $3000. but the up side is that if i can front the money for the course, it would totally open up tons of opportunities for jobs in the pacific north west. there are always teams of wilderness guides that need an EMT aboard and especially in this part of the country there would be lots of opportunies for work in that field. so we will see what happens…
i had such a blast doing this… and i really hope that i can do something similar (or at least use some of my new learned skills) really soon. rock n roll.
