SOM Curriculum

Course Information

Introduction and Course Overview

Medicine 534 Wilderness Medicine is an elective course for second-year medical students. First-year students will be allowed to enroll if the number of registered second year students falls below the course limit.

The primary objective of this elective course is to provide an overview of the field of wilderness medicine with less of an emphasis on pathophysiology and more of an emphasis on clinical problems and their diagnosis and management. After covering broad introductory topics, including patient assessment skills, at the start of the course we will examine core topics in the discipline including high altitude medicine, diving emergencies, water-borne illness and water disinfection, heat and cold-related illnesses, burns and frostbite, women in the wilderness, and orthopedic injuries. Throughout the course, we also examine practical aspects of wilderness medicine including wilderness evacuation and search and rescue and splinting orthopedic injuries and spend time working through multiple case scenarios based on actual patient events witnessed by the course faculty.

Unfortunately, we will only be able to cover a small part of the total amount of wilderness medicine material out there but we hope it provides a useful start for everyone that serves as a springboard to further work in this area.

Course Structure

The course will be largely lecture-based with two hours of course time (5:30-7:20PM) for eight consecutive Mondays in the spring quarter. All lectures will be held in Health Sciences, T-473. The course will include didactic sessions, hands-on work shops, case discussions and student presentations of their course assignments. The full list of topics is available on the Course Schedule Page, which you can access by clicking here.

While many wilderness medicine courses involve taking students out to the field for group exercises and simulated case scenarios, time and space considerations do not permit such sessions in this course. We hope that our case presentations and workshops fill this role to some extent and will work to make them as effective as possible.

Student Expectations

Examinations: there are no examinations as part of this course
Reading: reading assignments will be provided for each didactic lecture. The reading materials can be found on the e-reserves website which has been set up for this course. This is discussed further below.
Attendance: students are required to attend 14 of the 16 course sessions in order to receive credit for the course. The lecturers have taken time out of their busy schedules to put these talks together and as a courtesy to them you are expected to attend these sessions.
Group assignment: at the start of the course, each student will be placed in a small group and the groups will, in turn, be expected to improvise solutions to an assigned problem. Each group will present their solutions during the last class session. More information will be provided at the first class session. Click here to download information about the group assigments.
Grading: The course is graded on a pass-fail basis. Requirements for passing include attending at least 14 of the 16 class sessions and satisfactorily participating in the group project. Students who miss too may class sessions must write a short review of a topic in wilderness medicine in order to receive credit for the class.

Syllabus

There is no syllabus for the course and the prominent text books in the field are not suitable for a course like this because they are either too long and dense or are not geared towards a medical audience. For these reasons, we have taken a slightly different approach than what you may have experienced in other courses thus far in medical school. The syllabus consists largely of review articles from the medical literature written by prominent people within each field. For each lecture topic, we will have from one to three short articles for you to read prior to lecture. We hope that this not only provides the right amount of reading but also gives you some experience reading the medical literature, something you will do much more of in the years to come. Some of the articles, such as the Mills article on frostbite, will appear old to you but are still considered a standard piece in the field. In other cases, such as one of the articles on orthopedic injuries, we could not find a suitable recent article and wanted to avoid copyright issues that would arise with copying a book chapter.

Further information is provided in “Syllabus”.

The syllabus articles will be made available on-line through the course eReserves page. A coursepak will not be available for purchase. As a wilderness medicine course, we feel it is important to adhere to key principles of wilderness travel, one of which is the ethic of “Leave No Trace.” In the end, coursepaks end up in recycling bins or, worse, in the garbage can and contribute to our growing problems with waste. You may certainly choose to download and print the articles yourself but we will not be organizing a course pak.

The standard textbook in the field is Wilderness Medicine, edited by Paul S. Auerbach. It is a large book and encompasses far too much material to cover in our short course. It is a great resource and is something you may want to purchase in the future. The book is available through the University Bookstore in the South Campus Center. You can also access the entire text with a UWNet ID by clicking on the following link:

http://www.mdconsult.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/das/book/body/93955808-3/0/1483/0.html

How Do I Get Involved in Wilderness Medicine

Many of you may be wondering how you can get involved in wilderness medical work or similar endeavors in the future. This will be discussed to a limited extent in the first lecture. In addition, as part of the website, we have created a resources page with links to various organizations and professional societies that provide opportunities for more education as well as clinical and research opportunities in the field. We encourage you to browse through the sites. Be sure to let us know if you find other sites that we missed which might be of great use to future students.

Click here to be directed to the Resources page.

In the end, getting involved in this field will come down to your initiative. Be prepared to surf the web, send lots of emails, attend Wilderness Medical Society and other meetings all in an effort to build contacts and pursue clinical and research opportunities. It is by pounding the pavement, to borrow a well-known phrase, that you can open up some great experiences for yourself. Many of the faculty members in this course have also done clinical or research work in this field. You should not hesitate to ask questions after class or by email if you would like more information about their particular activities. Email addresses and other contact information for the faculty members are available on the Course Faculty page of this website.

Click here to be directed to the Course Faculty page.

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SOM Curriculum Course Information Faculty Schedule Syllabus Resources	Course Information Introduction and Course Overview Medicine 534 Wilderness Medicine is an elective course for second-year medical students. First-year students will be allowed to enroll if the number of registered second year students falls below the course limit. The primary objective of this elective course is to provide an overview of the field of wilderness medicine with less of an emphasis on pathophysiology and more of an emphasis on clinical problems and their diagnosis and management. After covering broad introductory topics, including patient assessment skills, at the start of the course we will examine core topics in the discipline including high altitude medicine, diving emergencies, water-borne illness and water disinfection, heat and cold-related illnesses, burns and frostbite, women in the wilderness, and orthopedic injuries. Throughout the course, we also examine practical aspects of wilderness medicine including wilderness evacuation and search and rescue and splinting orthopedic injuries and spend time working through multiple case scenarios based on actual patient events witnessed by the course faculty. Unfortunately, we will only be able to cover a small part of the total amount of wilderness medicine material out there but we hope it provides a useful start for everyone that serves as a springboard to further work in this area. Course Structure The course will be largely lecture-based with two hours of course time (5:30-7:20PM) for eight consecutive Mondays in the spring quarter. All lectures will be held in Health Sciences, T-473. The course will include didactic sessions, hands-on work shops, case discussions and student presentations of their course assignments. The full list of topics is available on the Course Schedule Page, which you can access by clicking here. While many wilderness medicine courses involve taking students out to the field for group exercises and simulated case scenarios, time and space considerations do not permit such sessions in this course. We hope that our case presentations and workshops fill this role to some extent and will work to make them as effective as possible. Student Expectations Examinations: there are no examinations as part of this course Reading: reading assignments will be provided for each didactic lecture. The reading materials can be found on the e-reserves website which has been set up for this course. This is discussed further below. Attendance: students are required to attend 14 of the 16 course sessions in order to receive credit for the course. The lecturers have taken time out of their busy schedules to put these talks together and as a courtesy to them you are expected to attend these sessions. Group assignment: at the start of the course, each student will be placed in a small group and the groups will, in turn, be expected to improvise solutions to an assigned problem. Each group will present their solutions during the last class session. More information will be provided at the first class session. Click here to download information about the group assigments. Grading: The course is graded on a pass-fail basis. Requirements for passing include attending at least 14 of the 16 class sessions and satisfactorily participating in the group project. Students who miss too may class sessions must write a short review of a topic in wilderness medicine in order to receive credit for the class. Syllabus There is no syllabus for the course and the prominent text books in the field are not suitable for a course like this because they are either too long and dense or are not geared towards a medical audience. For these reasons, we have taken a slightly different approach than what you may have experienced in other courses thus far in medical school. The syllabus consists largely of review articles from the medical literature written by prominent people within each field. For each lecture topic, we will have from one to three short articles for you to read prior to lecture. We hope that this not only provides the right amount of reading but also gives you some experience reading the medical literature, something you will do much more of in the years to come. Some of the articles, such as the Mills article on frostbite, will appear old to you but are still considered a standard piece in the field. In other cases, such as one of the articles on orthopedic injuries, we could not find a suitable recent article and wanted to avoid copyright issues that would arise with copying a book chapter. Further information is provided in “Syllabus”. The syllabus articles will be made available on-line through the course eReserves page. A coursepak will not be available for purchase. As a wilderness medicine course, we feel it is important to adhere to key principles of wilderness travel, one of which is the ethic of “Leave No Trace.” In the end, coursepaks end up in recycling bins or, worse, in the garbage can and contribute to our growing problems with waste. You may certainly choose to download and print the articles yourself but we will not be organizing a course pak. The standard textbook in the field is Wilderness Medicine, edited by Paul S. Auerbach. It is a large book and encompasses far too much material to cover in our short course. It is a great resource and is something you may want to purchase in the future. The book is available through the University Bookstore in the South Campus Center. You can also access the entire text with a UWNet ID by clicking on the following link: http://www.mdconsult.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/das/book/body/93955808-3/0/1483/0.html How Do I Get Involved in Wilderness Medicine Many of you may be wondering how you can get involved in wilderness medical work or similar endeavors in the future. This will be discussed to a limited extent in the first lecture. In addition, as part of the website, we have created a resources page with links to various organizations and professional societies that provide opportunities for more education as well as clinical and research opportunities in the field. We encourage you to browse through the sites. Be sure to let us know if you find other sites that we missed which might be of great use to future students. Click here to be directed to the Resources page. In the end, getting involved in this field will come down to your initiative. Be prepared to surf the web, send lots of emails, attend Wilderness Medical Society and other meetings all in an effort to build contacts and pursue clinical and research opportunities. It is by pounding the pavement, to borrow a well-known phrase, that you can open up some great experiences for yourself. Many of the faculty members in this course have also done clinical or research work in this field. You should not hesitate to ask questions after class or by email if you would like more information about their particular activities. Email addresses and other contact information for the faculty members are available on the Course Faculty page of this website. Click here to be directed to the Course Faculty page. Top of Page
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