Advanced Wilderness Life Support Course
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 Wilderness First Aid (WFA). 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. ACM is currently the only licensee in the southern Appalachians to teach the course annually (with a reorganizational hiatus in 2013). We have a deep, multi-institutional faculty that features instructors from a diverse range of states and backgrounds.
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.