We’ve mixed things up a little with this one. And rather than throwing you straight into an adventure environment, we’re starting with the foundations.
We’re heading to Kinloch, New Zealand, where you’ll be based at Kinloch Lodge and spend the week getting stuck into what it actually means to provide medical care when you’re well outside the usual workplace.
Think trauma, patient assessment, airway and spinal management, bleeding, fractures and dislocations, wounds, environmental illness, pharmacology, toxicology, patient movement, triage and medical emergencies - but with a wilderness twist.
You’ll learn to look at the patient, the environment, the resources you have available and the people around you, and work out what needs to happen next. You’ll be challenged to think on your feet, make decisions with what you’ve got, and start looking at patient care from a very different perspective. And that’s really what this course is about.
It’s not about turning you into an overnight wilderness expert. It’s about giving you a solid foundation to build on. You might already work in emergency medicine, general practice, primary care, nursing, paramedicine or another clinical field - maybe you are a medical student looking to get a head start on your wilderness medicine journey. Or perhaps you’re simply curious about what happens when medicine meets the great outdoors.
Either way, you’ll come away with new skills, a different way of thinking about patient care, and the confidence to start tackling medical problems when help isn’t just around the corner.
From here, you can take it further with us and jump into our environment-specific Wilderness Rescue Medicine programs - whether that’s canyon, alpine, marine or another remote environment. You don't need to work in those environments to benefit from them. They’re a chance to take the fundamentals you’ve learned here and put them to the test somewhere a little more wild - an adventure holiday alongside your medical training!
So, if you’re looking for a way to dip your toe into wilderness medicine, this is a pretty good place to start.
Although, knowing us, you’ll probably end up jumping in feet first.
And you’ll get to do it from Kinloch, surrounded by mountains, lakes, fresh air and people who are just as interested in learning how to provide good medicine when the usual rules of the road don’t quite apply.
We can't wait to have you join us!
