Background
The origin of wilderness medicine is unclear and depends on where you begin. Growth in the field, however, is clear, particularly since the 1980s. For example, the Wilderness Medicine Institute has trained more than 88,000 students since starting in 1990.
Objective
This short study attempted to elucidate why people attend the new wilderness medicine conferences, what influences their decision to attend a conference, and who is it that attends them.
Methods
A voluntary, blinded survey was distributed at a local wilderness medicine conference with approximately 100 attendees. Thirty-nine attendees responded to the survey.
Results
Of the respondents, 84.6% were in medical careers (8 emergency medical technicians, 6 physicians, 5 registered nurses, 3 medical students, 3 paramedics, 4 nurse practitioner/physician assistants, and 4 others). When people ranked the top 3 reasons for attending a wilderness medicine conference, a desire to know more for personal academic reasons accounted for 28.2% of responses, and personal medical reasons (ie, family and personal trips and hobbies might involve wilderness injuries) accounted for 24.5% of responses, followed by continuing medical education credits (13.6%), meeting people with similar interests (11.8%), professional (Ski Patrol, SAR, and so forth [10.9%]), and Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine credits (8.2%). When asked to give the top 3 reasons why they picked this conference in particular, 27.4% said location, 15.9% said timing, 15.9% said the organization/director, and 15% said the price.
Conclusions
More than half of people attend wilderness conferences for personal reasons, but more than 35% also attend for continuing medical education, professional, or Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine credits. Location, timing, price, and the organizer accounts for a large factor in selecting a particular conference, and most people who attend have a significant medical background. Surveys such as this help explain why people are so interested in wilderness medicine and may help to guide the planning of the conferences.