Hello Family and Friends,
You all now have the pleasure of speaking with four newly christened Wilderness First Responders! Wilderness First Responders are individuals who are trained to respond to emergency situations in remote locations. They are part of a wide variety of wilderness medical providers who deal with medical emergencies that occur in wilderness settings.The WFR is a semester long college level course condensed into nine 8-hour classes and two 4-hour night scenarios. However you slice it, the WFR course is more schooling than any of us have received in years… I have to admit that going into it we were all nervous, but it ended up being an incredible experience.
So the first three days we got up at 7am, made breakfast, and got to class promptly by 8 so we could get into our seats. We spent half the morning in a classroom setting and the other half practicing what we had learned in made-up scenarios. We were expected to take turns being patients or rescuers, and act out or identify a multitude of different problems. As rescuers we practiced a number of life-saving techniques that can be used in both the back and front countries. If any of us had our desired careers take a wrong turn, we might just be able to fall back into the field of medicine or, maybe more accurate, acting! The patients were asked to “sell” their ailments, and it was a tone of fun because the more real we could make our injuries appear the better our peers learned about these concepts.
We would have lunch at noon and then come back to class for more scenarios and class time. We concluded each day at 5pm and, depending on how much we needed to study, would spend more time on the materials or head to the gym to burn off some energy. Jenny or Zach, B2B staff who took the course alongside us, would often spend the evening with us as we cooked dinner and reviewed our materials. By Monday, it was like being a family. We all had jobs to do and were spending all of our time working and playing together. I think we all started to have fun with it and as we did the routine became easier and easier and the days became shorter and shorter. We were also blessed to have a class full of great people to work with as over half the class were non-B2B students. All of us have been in a sheltered environment here at B2B so it was really cool to interact with “normal” people and grow some new friendships. It gave us some real-world situations to practice all we have learned while in program.
On Thursday we had a four-hour long evening scenario in the woods where we were told to look for a missing person, only to find out that in each 4-person pod there were two “plants” who surprised their teammates with mysterious health problems. One had a fractured tibia, complete with Hollywood-style make-up. Our job was to stabilize them and splint their legs with only the outdoor gear and limited medical supplies we were carrying. Once we did that another member of the group was instructed to have an unexplained seizure. It was super stressful because everyone got so into it that it felt real. In the end we all did really well with the scenario and everyone had a blast.
Friday we went for coffee and met a handful of people from class to cram for the final “celebration of knowledge”. The test consisted of two parts: a 100 question multiple choice exam; and a practical scenario to show how to handle medical problems in the back country. We all passed with flying colors and are now qualified to assist people in trouble in the woods.
I would like to thank Jenny and Zach for spending the whole week with us. We all had such an amazing experience and thanks B2B for offering us this opportunity!
