AWLS 2012 Course (Updated 03/08/2012)
Dates: August 17-19, 2012
Location: New River Gorge, WV (Adventures on the Gorge, Fayetteville, WV)
Course Director / Asst Director: Deb Simon ([email protected])/ Seth Hawkins ([email protected]) (contact us for questions not answered by Course Guide or this website)
Registration: In order to register for the 2012 AWLS Course, you must complete the following two steps:
1) Email [email protected] with the following information:
Name:
Degree:
Address:
E-mail:
Phone Number:
Comments/Special Requests (i.e dietary requirements etc.)
If your organization is paying for your enrollment, please indicate in your email and ask that the representative include your name in the 'comments' section of PayPal.
2) Complete payment and course enrollment via PayPal below: (a service fee of $10 has been added for online registration)
**There is time dedicated within the course schedule for students (and families) to participate in all the amazing outdoor activities that are available in the New River Gorge. Our host, Adventures on the Gorge, is discounting all activities by 15% for course registrants and their guests.**
What is AWLS?
Advanced Wilderness Life Support (AWLS) is a 3 day course designed for healthcare professionals, to convert their medical training into a form usable in limited resource ("wilderness") environments. Anybody with a healthcare license or certification is eligible (EMT, RN, PA, MD, DO). Non-healthcare providers can also take the same course but receive certification in Basic Wilderness Life Support (BWLS). The curriculum was developed at the University of Utah in the late 1980s and has continued to be refined since then. AdventureMed, an organization founded to manage the AWLS program, now licenses other institutions to teach it. ACWM is currently the only licensee in the southern Appalachians to teach the course annually. We have a deep, multi-institutional faculty that features instructors from a diverse range of states and backgrounds. For more information on our AWLS version, consult our 2011 Course Guide. Note that our syllabus is dynamic and changes every year, so previous manuals should only be used as a rough guide for future course content and structure. Our AWLS course is currently by Adventures on the Gorge (AOTG). A rugged, whitewater river, flowing northward through deep canyons, the New River is among the oldest rivers on the continent. The New River Gorge park, which encompasses over 70,000 acres of land along the New River, is rich in cultural and natural history, and offers an abundance of scenic and recreational opportunities for students. Adventures on the Gorge Resort is an ideal setting for an Advanced Wilderness Life Support certification conference -- we hope you will join us!
Course Description:
"Learn the skills to prevent medical problems, reduce suffering and save lives in non-traditional medical settings"
• Earn your Advanced Wilderness Life Support certification
• Learn the latest practical hands-on wilderness medicine skills for patient assessment, treatment and evacuation protocols
• Practice your skills in live scenarios with our expert instructors
• Obtain up to 20.5 hours of category 1 CME*, nursing or EMS continuing education credit, through the Wilderness Medical Society
• Receive credits toward Fellowship certification in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine
Course Objectives:
• To provide a practical foundation in Wilderness Medicine for medical professionals
• To teach patient assessment and treatment guidelines for life support until definitive care or evacuation is available
• To train the provider in methods for managing medical and traumatic emergencies and urgencies in the wilderness when evacuation is unavailable or unnecessary
Topics Include:
• Patient Assessment
• Trauma
• Medical Problems
• Infectious Disease
• Head, Ear, Eye, Nose, Throat, Skin
• Animal & Insect Bites
• Musculoskeletal Injuries
• Wound Management
• Water Treatment
• Hyperthermia, Hypothermia, Frostbite
• Medical Kits
• Lightning
• High Altitude Pulmonary Edema & Cerebral Edema
*The Wilderness Medical Society designates this educational activity for a maximum of 20.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. 20.5 credits or credit hours are also available for RN and EMS continuing education credit.
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through joint sponsorship of the Wilderness Medical Society and AdventureMed. The Wilderness Medical Society is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Previous Courses:
2011 AWLS-New River Gorge Course
Fayetteville, WV, Aug 26-28, 2011 - We returned for a second straight year to the beautiful New River Gorge in Fayetteville, WV. The course and location received great reviews from all 40 of our students and our host, Adventures on the Gorge, did an outstanding job in providing a variety of outdoor recreation during the free time built within the course schedule. Students not only walked away with world-class wilderness medicine training, but also had the opportunity to raft/kayak, climb, mountain bike, hike, and zip line. On-site housing, a world-class faculty, emergency airway and suturing class, and a live snake lab were also popular.
2010 AWLS-New River Gorge Course
Fayetteville, WV, Aug 20-22, 2010 - A new format and new location proved to be a winner for this year's course. Participants gave rave reviews for the ability to study wilderness medicine right on the edge of the New River Gorge (With some "classrooms" on platforms extending out into the Gorge proper!) and enjoy whitewater rafting and other great outdoor activities during the day in between classes. On-site housing, a world-class faculty and a live snake lab were also popular. A new era in ACWM's AWLS program has begun!
2009 AWLS-Linville Gorge Course
Morganton, NC, Sept 25-28, 2009 - Our largest class ever assembled in western NC for this installment of our AWLS-Linville Gorge course. Highlights included practical exams around the Western Piedmont Community College lake and an optional day spent doing advanced modules in Linville Gorge at the North Carolina Outward Bound Table Rock basecamp. We also had our most diverse and talented faculty lineup ever, with instructors drawn from around the country, and our first students who travelled from outside North America to attend. A fantastic weekend!
2008 AWLS-Linville Gorge Course
Morganton, NC, Sept 26-29, 2008 - Our 2008 Advanced Wilderness Life Support Course was a great success. We added even more advanced topics, with an entire day of additional modules beyond the core AWLS curriculum, to give the students the best training possible.
ACWM partnered with MedCenter Air, the Carolinas Medical Center medical helicopter service, and Palmetto Health-University of South Carolina School of Medicine Simulation Center to stage a truly unique “Wilderness Megacode”. Students trained on a $40,000+ simulation mannequin through a variety of hands-on scenarios in the wilderness. Ultimately the mannequin was hot-loaded onto a medevac helicopter which flew it from the simulated wilderness environment.
Over 40 students traveled from around the country to NC to participate in this uniquely-formatted AWLS course which included more than three days of classroom and hands-on outdoor training. Participants gave the course rave reviews, and returned to their home communities better equipped to care for patients in wilderness, resource-deficient and austere environments.
“It’s a beautiful area, and the course was taught by intelligent and fun staff,” said one medical student from West Virginia. “A+!”