You’re on a quick day hike and you’ve followed all the usual safety rules: tell someone where you’re going, bring plenty of water, and bring your Garmin satellite phone. That should be enough to keep you and your hiking partners safe if something goes wrong – until it isn’t.
Say one of your hiking partners gets a little too close to the cliff ledge and takes a nasty fall. They’re responsive so you think it may not be too serious, but what you don’t know is that they’ve suffered spinal damage and you can’t just help them get up or move them haphazardly. Imagine you have a diabetic friend joining you, and they forgot to eat breakfast – they start feeling disoriented and can’t stand up. They can’t remember where they are or what happened. You didn’t bring snacks because it’s just a quick 2 mile hike. Or you’re solo hiking and you trip – a sharp brand impales your leg. Help is hours away – how are you going to treat it in the meantime?
Wilderness First Aid (WFA)is a life-changing course that anyone who likes to spend time outdoors should take. The amount of little things you realized you have not been prepared for is mind-blowing. After completing this course, I had an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I’ve had no emergencies or injuries during my hiking or backpacking trips thus far – I would not have had the confidence or tools to handle life threatening emergencies. After taking this 16 hour, 2 day course I feel like I have the knowledge and resources that I need to handle a wilderness emergency and potentially save mine or someone else’s life. (And no, this is not an ad or sponsored post). I genuinely think everyone should take this class!
A WFA course is a 16 hour in person course that combines lectures, demonstrations, skills practice, and role-playing scenarios. The basis of becoming certified in Wilderness First Aid is knowing and practicing the patient assessment system (PAS) – a decision triangle that guides how to approach and handle a wilderness injury or emergency. The PAS is broken down into a list of priority actions from assessing the safety of the scene to assessing the patient head to toe. All of these steps are critical for determining your action plan, especially in a life-threatening situation.
After grasping the concept of PAS, the class focused on common treatments needed in a wilderness emergency including creating splints and slings for fracture or broken bones, applying tourniquets, administering epipens, and packing wounds. After learning those skillsets, I’ll be reassessing and adding to my first aid kit.
The most impactful portion of the class was the scenarios. We spent half of the second class just role-playing scenarios. Each scenario had an actor who fully took on the role with makeup mimicking certain injuries. The actor was given a scenario – for one scenario, I was a diabetic patient who didn’t eat lunch and fell down on the trail. It took me several seconds to answer any questions and I couldn’t remember the answers to some questions (like where I was or what day it was). My group members had to assess me using PAS, and were supposed to look for my diabetic necklace, and then determine that I needed some glucose paste (something that I would have never known to stock in my first aid kit prior to this class!). In another scenario, I was a patient who took a nasty fall and suffered a head AND spinal injury. I was in an awkward position with my head facing downhill (which is NOT a good position to be in with a head injury). Considering the fact that I had a spinal injury, my group had to determine how to safely move my body – during which they also determined that I was feeling very cold and therefore going into shock! My scenario was unfortunately a dire one, but my group did an excellent job assessing my injuries and determining the best treatment options while an evac helicopter was on the way (figuratively).
These scenarios were stressful and at times very challenging – but I am so glad that I experienced them and now have both the confidence and knowledge needed to help out in a wilderness emergency. The certification is valid for 3 years, but I will be regularly volunteering with the group that ran the training at their future WFA courses to help keep the materials fresh in my mind. Even if this feels a little out of your comfort zone, I can’t recommend this course enough – it could save yours or someone else’s life!