Abstract
Objective
This study was designed to evaluate changes in comfort level with specific wilderness skills before and after an Advanced Wilderness Life Support (AWLS) course.
Methods
This is a retrospective study involving 38 participants who completed AWLS. The course occurred August 21 to August 22, 2010 and was hosted by the Austere Environment Medical Initiative through the University of Michigan. The course design included 12 didactic lectures as well as small group learning and hands-on skill sessions. Prior to the course, participants answered a short survey questioning their comfort levels with various wilderness medical skills. The scale ranged from 1 (least) to 5 (most) comfortable. At the conclusion of the course, prior to the final exam, participants took the same short survey and rated their comfort levels again with the same skills. Skills assessed included: patient assessment, evacuation, orthopedic injuries, heat and cold illness, altitude illness, avalanche rescue, lightning injuries, infectious diseases, and expedition medicine. Additionally, a final survey was emailed to participants 1 month after the conclusion of the course. Results were analyzed with the Student's t-test and indicated that comfort levels significantly improved after the course across all skills assessed.
Results
The data shows marked improvement in confidence in all categories surveyed.
Conclusions
Through a wilderness life support course, it was possible to effectively teach across a wide range of medical care providers, many with more overall medical experience than the instructors and organizers. This data will be used as the Austere Environment Medical Initiative plans further wilderness medical courses for medical providers.