Wilderness Medicine, Tropical Medicine,
Rescue & Related Rotations/Courses
Belize, Central America
Course Descriptions
Wilderness &
Tropical Medicine
Rotation
The Wilderness
& Tropical Medicine rotation will provide both basic and advanced
wilderness and austere medical skills & knowledge needed to recognize
and stabilize life threatening illness and injury, as well as treat a
variety of common minor problems. Basic search and rescue skills
including an introduction to jungle, cave, and river rescue as well as
personal safety and survival skills are integral to providing effective
care in wilderness and international settings, and will be practiced
extensively in the course, along with basic disaster response,
improvisation of medical and rescue materials, and related topics.
This class is
designed for resident physicians and medical students, but we have also
had – on a case by case basis – Paramedics, EMTs, technical rescue
personnel, select pre-health profession students, and a few outstanding
civilians successfully complete the program. If you are interested,
please inquire if this class will meet your needs – Wilderness First
Responder and Wilderness EMT-B/P cross over certifications are available
for participants holding those certifications.
The rotation
consists of a minimum of two weeks of guided self-study conducted on an
individual basis, coupled with practical field instruction in the
country of Belize, Central America. The field portion consists of a
fourteen-day module with one-two days off in the middle of the program.
The program will be conducted at the Institute’s Sibun River Training
Base, a modern classroom & housing facility, with field exercises being
conducted in the surrounding jungle, caves, and river areas. The field
program is unique and very challenging – physically, but even more so
mentally and emotionally – you will face challenges unlike those that
you have faced before – and emerge a much stronger medical provider,
technically and personally. The difficult challenge this program
represents is a consistent theme prior students have commented on – and
they have universally praised not only what they have learned about
medicine, but what they have learned about themselves. Final written
evaluations of the participant’s performance will be submitted to their
institution at the completion of the program.
***** Note:
This program is physically demanding - you do NOT need to
be a world class athlete - but you do need to be able to walk up and
down steep muddy hills with the equivalent of a 15-20 pound pack in high
heat and humidity, function in dark and narrow spaces for brief periods,
and be able to swim in water deeper than your height with the aid of a
life jacket. You WILL get soaking wet, covered in mud,
hot, cold, bruised & scraped up, and bug bitten – you can’t do
wilderness medicine without being in the wilderness! All of our students
to date have had little problem in meeting these challenges.
Instructors
for this program are physicians and Paramedic instructors with
extensive real world emergency medicine, wilderness, developing
country, and teaching experience who have been working in Belize and
around the world for many years. They are assisted by other specially
qualified staff, including selected honor graduates from prior programs,
Belize National Cave & Wilderness Rescue Team medics who have completed
an instructor development program, and other personnel with areas of
special expertise.
All specialty
gear and equipment will be provided. All students will be issued a
rescue/caving helmet, webbing, rope, jungle hammock, and life jacket for
use in the program. Students are responsible for all other personal gear
as specified in the individual equipment list provided to you.
Join us for
the adventure of a lifetime! Contact us for an application and a
specific course information packet. Read this carefully before applying.
We will interview by telephone all applicants to ensure that you
understand the course intentions and limitations to ensure that this
program will meet your needs and expectations.
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Wilderness-Cave-River Medical Rescue Level 1 Rotation
This series of
courses is designed to complement the wilderness medicine courses by
providing additional training in the technical aspects of patient
access, stabilization, immobilization, and evacuation. Wilderness,
remote, austere, and disaster medical situations often require extensive
rescue and evacuation components to save lives. Medical providers
require a basic knowledge of the technical aspects of the rescue
component, as well as advanced skills and experiences to be able to
successfully integrate medical care with the rescue process.
The Level 1
course introduces technical rescue concepts and equipment, safety of all
procedures and operations, and basic patient immobilization, vertical
hauling systems, and movement through confined spaces, water hazards,
and difficult terrain. This course is primarily conducted through
extensive field learning exercises. This course is often offered in
conjunction with (either before or after) the wilderness and tropical
medicine class to allow participants to gain the full introductory
experience to wilderness medicine and rescue.
Advanced rescue classes
in technical rescue, river rescue, cave rescue, and rescue leadership
are also offered to those with appropriate qualifications. Please
inquire if interested.
Maritime
Wilderness First Responder & Dive Accident Management
Click Here for a Detailed Course Synopsis
This course is
an introductory program focusing on the basics of saving lives and
treating critical medical emergencies in, on, and around the marine
environment. It uses demonstrations and discussions of important areas
followed by extensive practical teaching and practice to ensure mastery
of both concepts and skills. This class is specifically designed to be
“Belize appropriate” in both how it is taught and it’s content. This
class will be specific for the needs, resources, and capabilities of
Belizean students and the local environment.
It’s target
audience is Belizean tourism and diving personnel, marine research
personnel and support staff, coastal fisheries, law enforcement and
Defense Force personnel, marine and coastal NGO staff, national disaster
and rescue personnel. A small number of selected North American medical
providers may also be invited to participate on a space available basis.
Click
Here for Electronic Application for this course*
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Expedition &
Missionary Medicine Level 1
A unique
program offering the specific medical assessment, care, and evacuation
techniques, skills, and knowledge needed for use in expedition,
wilderness, remote, austere, and/or disaster conditions. Emphasis will
be placed on improvisation and application of concepts with extremely
limited resources under challenging conditions. Both “low-tech” and
“high-tech” solutions will be explored.
Conventional
“urban” medical knowledge and skill sets are often unavailable,
inadequate, even dangerous, when applied in austere settings. Physicians
planning work or travel in these settings, be it as an expedition
physician, for missionary work, research, or adventure travel need
specific, proven, knowledge, skills, and experience to transition from
their own area of expertise to the new paradigm of austere care. No
class can entirely prepare you for any and every eventuality you may
encounter. The purpose of this class is to give you specific skills -
and experience in applying those skills under challenging conditions –
as concepts that may then be adapted and applied under the
widest possible circumstances.
This program
is designed for experienced physicians and resident physicians in their
final year of training, regardless of specialty. Experienced advance
practice providers and remote duty medical personnel (e.g. special
operations medics) are also encouraged to apply.
Physician and
other provider Continuing Medical Education credits are available
for this program.
The program is
held in the safe and easily accessible Central American country of
Belize, on the edge of the rainforest at our modern Sibun River Training
Base. It consists of a 100+ hour program over 9 days. It uses
demonstrations and discussions of important areas followed by extensive
practical teaching, skills labs with simulators & volunteers, and
practice to ensure mastery of both concepts and hands-on material.
Teaching is done in the classroom, laboratory, and jungles, caves, and
rivers of the area. Practical field exercises are designed to complement
and reinforce critical concepts as well as allow participants to gain
experience with field equipment under realistic conditions. While
physically challenging at times, these settings are well within the
capabilities of those with very average fitness. Our emphasis is on
learning, not physical challenge. All specialized equipment is provided,
and you will live, eat, and sleep in our modern facility equipped with a
kitchen staff, hot water showers, and comfortable bunkrooms.
Areas of
emphasis for this program are:
·
Expedition/mission planning and needs estimation
·
Self-rescue and personal survival skills
·
Use
of specialized and highly portable equipment
·
Medication selection, durability, and storage
·
Proven protocols and solutions
·
Pain
control, regional, and general anesthesia in the field
·
Field laboratory procedures & techniques
·
Patient movement and evacuation techniques
·
Extreme circumstance patient assessment, including remote assessment,
hasty, confined space, and low-light examination, as well as low-tech
and now largely forgotten bedside examination skills
·
Life-saving interventions for patients experiencing injury/illness in
the “Big 3” body systems – the respiratory, cardiac, and neurologic
systems – focusing on practical methods of assisting breathing,
controlling bleeding, administering fluids, and managing spinal injuries
with minimal (or no) equipment
·
Treating shock in the field
·
Managing fractures, dislocations, sprains and strains, including closed
reductions and closed traction systems
·
Ophthalmic, dental, obstetric, and other specialized emergencies
·
Environmental emergencies including altitude problems, heat & cold
emergencies, lightening injury, snakebite and insect injuries, burns,
·
Medical problems including stabilizing acute exacerbation’s of chronic
of cardiac, respiratory, neurologic, and metabolic conditions
·
Practical infectious disease and public health/sanitation/water
purification skills
·
Improvisation of care materials, supplies, techniques
·
Assembly of your own medical kits and supplies using available
materials, proper storage, etc.
·
And
much, much more….
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Wilderness & Tropical Medicine
Advanced
Clinical Practicum
& Research
This elective rotation is for students and resident physicians who have
completed either our initial Wilderness and Tropical Medicine rotation,
or have equivalent training, as approved by the instructional team. This
elective gives participants the opportunity to develop both their
applied knowledge and practical skill base through participation in
additional training programs as well as participate in adjunct
instructor and teaching assistant roles. Participant’s exact roles and
duties are designed through individual contract with the instructional
team, and will vary according to the desired goals.
All programs
will have components of assigned readings, oral and practical
examinations, and a final project evaluation. Duration is flexible.
Final written evaluations of the participant’s performance will be
submitted to their institution at the completion of the program. The
instructional team is headed by Board Certified physicians holding
faculty appointments at the University of Nebraska School of Medicine
and/or other institutions, and is coordinated in Belize through the
Belize Institute for Tropical and Wilderness Medicine.
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International Wilderness Medicine
Adventure Challenge
As austere, extreme,
remote, and wilderness medical care becomes more developed,
field-training venues in addition to the more traditional classroom
settings become increasingly desirable. This competition will serve as
an educational process and personal and team assessment tool, as well as
a venue to exchange techniques and solutions. Knowledge and skills sets
tested have been designed to serve the needs of professional and
volunteer medical rescuers, both civilian and military. Physicians,
residents, medical and allied health students, paramedics, EMT’s… all
will compete on an equal basis… for prizes, awards, and recognition as
the best in the world!
30 civilian CEU/CME hours
will be granted as well as United States military Mission Essential
Tasking & Medical Proficiency Testing elements. Rotation credit as an
elective for residents, medical and allied health students is offered as
well! All proceeds from the Challenge will go to support the work of the
non-profit Belize Institute for Tropical & Wilderness Medicine in Belize
and the Caribbean Basin.
The competition is
designed so that both Basic Life Support providers and Advanced Life
Support providers can participate equally, in separate categories. Both
categories will field three person teams. Each team will undergo a
series of eight standardized medical rescue scenarios over a 60-hour
period using trained & moulaged patients and standardized grading
criteria. Knowledge, skills, problem solving, field navigation, and
field living skills will all be challenged! Teams will also face a
written knowledge test via a standardized examination – although the
testing will be conducted under very challenging conditions!
The 2005 International
Wilderness Medicine Adventure Challenge will be conducted on 58,000
acres of primary growth rainforest. Numerous peaks, rivers, caves, and a
few surprises, are scattered throughout the jungle. Teams will be based
at the Institute’s Sibun river training base, with full mess,
sanitation, and bathing support. The camp will be established and
conducted in the same manner as a typical international disaster
response camp. Teams will be randomly assigned to a rotation of eight
field problems over a 60-hour period – eat, wash, and sleep when you
can, you will never know when your next mission will be assigned to you!
Moreover, somewhere in those 60 hours you will face the written exam as
well…
APPLICATION HERE...
Learn More Here:
http://www.gmrsltd.com/RMCGchallengeinfo.html
There are only 20 team spaces; apply immediately
to ensure you have a spot!
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