Wilderness First Responder is in full swing

6/20 – 6/25

Friday-Wednesday – We started our SOLO Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course. Dr. Frank Hubbell the founder of SOLO came out with Paul Richardson and Overland Missions alumni Rowan. The basis of the WFR course is to equip those going into the backcountry and remote areas with the necessary medical skills to assess, diagnose and treat injuries where a proper medical team would take hours if not days to reach. WFR approaches the course not with a recipe for what to do but teaches one how to diagnose a problem and use common sense to treat the injury. This course teaches physiology of an injury so you can diagnose and treat an injury where an hour might be the difference between life and death when the nearest adequate facility may be a day away.

I took the course three years ago as part of my Adventure Education minor but it is time for the refresher. What a great opportunity to take the course with Dr. Frank, the founder of SOLO. He is a very knowledgeable and intelligent man, with a passion for medicine and training others with his knowledge.

We have class for 8-10 hours a day. The course is for ten days. We’re half way through. We have classroom time where we learn about the physiology of an injury and then we go out and practice what we’ve learned in mock scenarios. We practice as if we were a real life rescue time set out to rescue a person.

So far we’ve learned how to diagnose and treat: head, neck and back injuries; sprains; broken bones; heart conditions; brain conditions; seizures; strokes; diabetes; and wounds. We’ve learned how to monitor a patient over time which is very necessary. Also we’ve learned how to do the correct paperwork associated with documenting an injury.

This is a very enjoyable course and a great refresher. More details to come!