Aerie's Spring Semester in Wilderness Medicine: Med Wars and Student Presentations

Well, we continue to find ways to fill our days and heads with learning while also continuing to have fun. A perfect example of this occurred at the end of last week. The students competed in the first ever Aerie Med Wars! In teams of two, the students had to navigate to different locations around the Rich Ranch and perform tasks such as constructing improvised litters and caring for patients in different medical scenarios. The scores have yet to be tallied for determining the victorious duo (mostly because we are having trouble deciding who had the best costume....see below).

Med Wars

In addition to Med Wars, the students continue to improve in the patient assessments. The National Registry practical test is on April 10th so don't forget to call and wish your kid/friend/partner luck!

Medical assessment performed by Des as Lex plays the patient

Instructor Becca looking on as students ace their patient assessments


Adam remembering to warm the stethoscope

As the weather warms up, we've tried to extract some extra vitamin D by relocating the classroom to the outdoors.

We also continue to practice our wilderness medical skills. Please admire the improvised femur traction device constructed by Kyle, Blake, and Andrew on instructor Trenton in the picture to the left.

Perhaps the best part of the week has been the student presentations. Adam and Tyler taught us how to create improvised stoves. Blake and Andrew discussed how some of the surrounding flora can be used for herbal, medical remedies. Kyle and Bren provided us with insight on disaster preparedness. We learned about medical preparation for events such as adventure races and concerts from Tom and Peter. Lizzy and Lex provided insight about vaccinations, while Dara and Lauren covered international medical aid. Finally, Carolan and Des taught us how to make proper snow shelters. Below are a few pictures from the presentations.