Comments on: Wilderness First Responder course – Overall impressions

By: Paul Mags

Paul Mags — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 00:57:37 +0000

In reply to Colorado Jones. Sorry! I missed replying to this comment for some reason. I'd say it's about 50/50 with fewer scenarios at the start with more towards the end (and the nighttime exercise of a few hours, of course). I just did a Hybrid re-cert weekend with the test/book portion on lien and two days of workstations and scenarios vs. lecture of about 50/50 as well.

By: Colorado Jones

Colorado Jones — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 15:05:55 +0000

As always, thanks for the detailed and thoughtful review, Paul! I just completed my second WFA course this weekend, so I’ve now got just a little over two years experience with wilderness medicine. Both of my WFA courses were about 20-25% hands-on practice with the remainder pretty much being lecture/content based. At this point, I feel like I’ve enhanced my familiarity with wilderness medicine but still have a long ways to go in terms of proficiency. So I’m thinking WFR might be a good next step for me at some point in the next two years. Based on your experience, what percentage of the WFR course is dedicated to actual scenarios and hands-on practice?

By: MATT

MATT — Tue, 24 Dec 2019 00:18:34 +0000

I’ve done a WFR with Nols and an WEMT with remote medical international. Both courses were very professional, however I recently wanted to do a WFR with Nols again and they cancelled the course on me after I confirmed with them via email I would be attending. I had my flights booked, but because I hadn’t put a down payment Down they said it wasn’t there problem. I thought this was very poor form, so I warn people just to be careful when dealing with NOLS.

By: Rocky

Rocky — Sun, 17 Nov 2019 02:18:14 +0000

Welcome to the WFR community. Be sure to recertify every two years; not only do unused skills get rusty, the recommendations change, too. I’d try hard to recertify through NOLS, they are picky about partners. I’ve done WFR and recerts through two other outfits, NOLS is by far the best.

The best part of WFR and recerts is the hands-on training. When life got too interesting outdoors, I’ve often fallen back on WFR “muscle memory.” I also carry NOLS cheat sheets plus a couple of my own. I’ll never remember how to tape-wrap an ankle otherwise.

Several years ago I had paramedics work on me twice on the same day for the same problem (long story). Their questions and procedures were very familiar 🙁