Wilderness First Aid (WFA)

Course Features

WFA certification is intended for half-day to overnight trips with reliable communication and where outside assistance is readily available within a few hours. As cavers, we laugh at "reliable communication" and "readily-available assistance". We also know that a more appropriate 10-day Wilderness Responder Certification is inaccessible for most cavers due to time and financial constraints. Southeast Expedition Medical levels-up our Wilderness First Aid. We will offer more to you and ask more from you than a typical WFA, knowing that you need more to meet the challenges of living life underground.

Shop Our Store In-Person

Our traveling store will be open at the end of this course.

Realistic Scenarios & High-Quality Simulation

All our scenarios are custom-developed by us to reflect real-world situations. Some scenarios will include high-quality moulage (fake wounds and/or blood). All WFA classes will also include a night-time mock rescue, similar to the capstone scenario in a Wilderness First Responder course, but adjusted for WFA scope of practice.

Skills practice will include high-quality simulators/trainers and sample materials. See more detail on the CPR/AED & Stop The Bleed training page.

Evidence-Based Medicine

Wilderness Medicine Education Collaborative (WMEC) is a professional organization that develops consensus-driven scope of practice and standards for Wilderness First Aid (WFA) Certification. 

Southeast Expedition Medical follows WMEC standards, as well as incorporates additional information from scientific journal articles to bring you the cutting edge of wilderness education.

Certifications

This course will include certification in Wilderness & Remote First Aid from American Red Cross and in Stop the Bleed from American College of Surgeons. 

Courses will also include an optional hybrid CPR/AED Certification add-on from American Red Cross for those not already certified.

Intensive & Hands-On

With 2 jam-packed days of training plus a night-time mock rescue, our courses have been described by alumni as intense. We refuse to do "death by PowerPoint" - we get you up and moving. Southeast Expedition Medical has more skills practice and scenario time at a Wilderness First Aid level than any other provider. How do we do this?

More Hours of Training : A standard WFA is 16-hours. SEM's WFA is 18 hours of in-person course time plus 2-4 hours of online primer. This time does not include the CPR/AED prerequisite offered Friday evening.

Hybrid-Format Primer : By overwhelming amounts, our alumni have requested early access to the patient assessment system and even more scenario time. To facilitate this, Southeast Expedition Medical includes online learning prior to the course to cover foundational principles so we can hit the ground running at location.

Caver-Focused

Wild caves are uniquely austere environments. 

Timely communication across distances is nearly impossible. Cell phones and GPS/satellite phones have no signal. Radios will only work with line of sight. 

Additionally, caves are a 3D puzzle. A section that took minutes to pass through when healthy and mobile could take over a day to open up enough for a sked (rescue litter) - and the responding rescue team may not have medically-trained providers either.

Classes will level-up beyond the base requirements of certification to ensure students leave better prepared to face a medical incident in circumstances just a bit beyond the reach of WFA training.

Small Course Sizes

7-9 students per instructor

While many providers have up to 30 students at a time, we will never have more than 18 students in a class, ensuring you receive timely feedback and individual attention during the course. 

Classes that do not include rescue team members within the student group will be capped even lower - at 12-14 students, as we have found that rescue team members provide excellent peer-to-peer feedback. 

We encourage rescue team members to participate in our courses by providing CPR/AED training free of charge for up to 2 rescue team members within each class.