You can find an incredibly rich set of resources here that includes articles, curriculum materials, videos, Blogs from industry experts, online discussion forums, Job Postings, Training Listings, the most detailed listing of outdoor adventure providers on the Web and more! Thanks for being a part of the Outdoor Ed Community
OutdoorEd.com
OutdoorSafety.org
Outdoor Ed Store
Outdoor Ed Community
The Recreation Law Center
The Outdoor Ed Community is the online Social Networking site for outdoor professionals where you can interact colleagues and peers from around the world.
Outdoor Ed offers the best source for outdoor professionals to find careers and for employers to find great staff. We also host the largest online directory of companies and schools offering outdoor and experiential education programs and degrees. You can search for specific jobs, companies or schools.
From Wilderness First Aid courses to rock climbing certifications, this is your source for finding professional training.
The Outdoor Ed Community is where you can interact with other outdoor professionals.
The concept of consistency in the content of Wilderness First Aid (WFA) and Wilderness First Responder (WFR) programs is receiving much attention. Some folks seem to think there is chaos among the various providers with people teaching widely varying practices. I’m not so sure this is the case.
I’ve been talking with David Johnson MD of Wilderness Medical Associates for several years on this question of curriculum consistency. We decided last winter that it was time to move forward on this question and to approach this project by first defining the Scope of Practice (SOP) for WFA and WFR. Scope of Practice is medical jargon for a job description, a statement about what a WFA or WFR should be able to do, and not do. This seems a logical place to start.
We do not feel it is our place to dictate standards to the industry. Rather, we’ve drafted a document with input from peer groups including Aerie, SOLO, Wilderness Medicine Training Center, Wilderness Medicine Outfitters, Landmark Learning and Desert Mountain Medicine. Together we’ve trained over 150,000 WFA students since 2000.
Most of this was straightforward and it was easy to reach agreement. The challenging issues revolve around the total amount of content we think can reasonably fit in a 16 hour program without eroding overall skill retention, and questions on what skills and decisions are appropriate for a WFA.
The attachment below (pdf) is the consensus document, posted to allow a wider audience a chance for input.
Our next step will be to send it to the Wilderness Medical Society’s Education committee for their consideration as part of their charge to develop standard WFA and WFR curriculum.
As you can see, we agree it is time to take another step toward consistency in the WFA and WFR programs, so the consumer, often an outdoor program hiring a trip leader, knows what a credential implies. If you work in outdoor programs and want to participate please send your comments to Dr. Johnson and myself.
The Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE) has issued a press release about the roundtable discussion that they held at the AORE Conference in St. Paul, MN. The Wilderness Medical Roundtable brought together four of the leading wilderness medical providers, two AORE practitioners, and two leading authors in an important discussion relating to the issue of standardizing wilderness medicine.
www.outdoored.com/.../template1.aspx