Longleaf Wilderness Medicine

If you are waiting for a good time to take a WFR class, let this be your sign - the time is NOW!

Join us in Seattle in March for a Hybrid Wilderness First Responder course and learn to respond confidently to medical emergencies.

https://www.longleafmedical.com/march26-wfr-seattle.html

𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚: Slow is smooth and smooth...

Whether you are starting the WFR test, entering a WFA scenario, or another challenge that life throws your way, just stop, take a deep breath, and whisper "you've got this" and head on into whatever you are facing, knowing that you do. Just start slow and take it one step at a time!

Some days are just rougher than others! Luckily, these mock patients had WFR students who were ready to respond.

𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐙: Based on what you see, what's your treatment plan for this injury?

Congrats to the newest Wilderness First Responders out of Laramie, WY! After successfully taking on knoweldge and skills assessments, we're proud to have them as LWM alums. Stay safe out there!

A great - and important - piece that provides guidance on how to ensure that a patient's baseline skin tone is taken into account during assessment of SCTM and how melanin levels impact visual changes to the skin throughout the illness process.

Skin Color Assessment in EMS Education and Practice Skin color in patient assessment is often taught using frameworks that don't reflect the diversity of patients encountered in modern EMS practice.

It is more comfortable to stay inside, but darn it if mother nature isn't just the best teacher!

Everything gets a bit more complicated when you have to work aggressively to keep yourself and your patient warm (and to keep gloves and emergency blankets from blowing away!) while facilitating complete assessments over extended time periods.

While it absolutely a challenge, students always report a sense of pride and accomplishment after facing extreme weather conditions in class - and important experience for building confidence in emergency response for the future.

What's the biggest challenge you faced in class?

Emergency response always comes with stress - just what am I going to face when I walk into a scene? This is why we emphasize the patient assessment process so that responders can bring some calm to the chaos of the scene - and their brain.

In class, students walk into scenarios multiple times in a day in order to develop a routine for the initial moments of response and then to delve further into the components of the assessment process. Student patient outcomes are always good, but the stress doesn't change!

Which of the pieces of the Initial Assessment (ABCDE) are you actively concerned about for this patient? And just WHAT do you think they were up to?!

While we always prefer to run practice scenarios outside, sometimes the environment says "not today." What it doesn't change is our process of ensuring that course participants have ongoing opportunities to practice the patient assessment process - even when it appears that good decisions have NOT been made.

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐖𝐅𝐑, 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞!

⛑️Wilderness First Responder - Initial Certification Course
Hybrid course with 35 hours self-paced learning and 45 in-person hours

📆 January 17-19 and January 24-25, 2026

🧭Seattle, WA

Course information link in comments.

Students in this weekend's WFA class learned key skills for keeping patients (and themselves!) warm while also ensuring a complete patient assessment. As always, the environment is a great teacher!