My Outdoor Educator Semester here at NOLS includes (if you hadn't already heard me say so) an intensive 10-day Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course including detailed first aid, CPR training, and backcountry medical practices and protocols. Today's topics were all environmentally caused injuries or illnesses, from altitude to cold, from heat to radiation and more.

Every day of the course starts with a "Common & Simple" brief done by one or two members of the class. We teach these simpler problems and their treatment to get practice teaching outdoor skills and get exposed to a variety of different teaching styles. I took nosebleeds, a lovely topic, and students today covered radiation (sun-) burn and snow blindness. Mike and Zach, seen in the above picture in Hawaiian shirt and pink long underwear, respectively, took the snow blindness topic and went for the entertainment route. Video of their stunning performance after the break.



Check out my stunning notes on hypothermia, too...notes are really intense here in this class, since every detail counts both on the exams and when applying these skills in real life. I like to use my tiny Rite in the Rain notebook (a gift from my cousin) for this, since it's easy to bring outside when we do our frequent scenarios. WMI uses these scenarios to allow us to apply what we learn in the classroom in hands-on situations. The other day, when I was a patient, I had a simulated gunshot wound, and had an open pneumohemothorax with tension. I celebrate my ever-expanding medical vocabulary.

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