[philmont] Wilderness First Aid IS REQUIRED in 2008 and beyond

http://www.whiteblaze.net/index.php?page=med_guide

The above is a pretty well done summary of wilderness first aid for
thru-hikers - aimed at people thru-hiking the Pacific Crest or
Appalachian trails, however, much of this would be relevant for
Philmont or other extended hikes as well.

Personally, I believe that it is asking for trouble to take a crew to
Philmont or anywhere else that's very far beyond immediate help
without significant wilderness first aid training or equivalent
knowledge. Certainly the more wilderness first aid training you get,
the more you'll realize how many things could happen such that
competent first aid is the only hope for saving a life. My kids (in my
troop, crew and ship) are far too precious to risk without being as
prepared as I can be. And thankfully, many of them now have
significant advanced first aid training in case I'm the one who keels
over!

As for the Red Cross thing, we started with a Red Cross chapter both
unfamiliar with and uninterested in Wilderness First Aid, and a
council with no instructors at all, but we managed to get it off the
ground anyway, I'm not terribly sympathetic to the "nobody around here
offers it" thing. If they don't then YOU offer it! That's what I did -
yes, it took some significant time and studying to get competent, and
it would have been really difficult if I hadn't recruited a couple of
competent co-conspirators. But now, 6 years later, we have around a
dozen active instructors (including 3 youths), and we're gearing up to
teach at least 150 students next year to meet the Philmont demand from
our council and neighbors - we could double that if we have to. Also,
as an experiment we're going to use our youth instructors to offer
Wilderness First Aid during a couple weeks of summer camp - if that
goes well, we will probably make it a regular offering at both summer
and winter camps in the future.

So, go get yourself a Red Cross certification to teach First
Aid/CPR/AED - this certification is readily available anywhere in the
country, although prices vary - then get the Wilderness First Aid
Basics instructor materials
(http://www.pisgahforest.com/redcross/wfab.htm has info although you
may need to convince your Red Cross chapter to order the instructor
books for you), do the self-certification, spend some time studying,
then start teaching! You don't need much cooperation from the Red
Cross beyond your basic instructor certification; but you do need to
find whoever is designated as the BSA/ARC liaison in your council so
they can submit the course paperwork plus the $5 per head fee so you
can get the "Trained" cards issued by the Red Cross for your students.
Materials can be ordered online - the books, card, and patch cost
around $40 per person plus any consumable supplies you use (it's more
fun if you use a bunch of fake blood, etc. and you'll definitely need
things like bandages, splints and blankets for skills practice), plus
whatever you need for food plus camping. If you can camp for free at
a council camp, and you expect people to provide their own meals, and
you go really cheap on consumables you could probably charge as little
as $50-60 for the course. In our council we charge $80, which covers
some pretty sophisticated scenarios, good equipment for practice (SAM
splints, well equipped jump bags, etc.), and of course fine dining
including a big spread of barbecue for dinner. Anyway, if you started
working on this now it would be no trouble at all to be ready to teach
by fall, so why not just go for it? It would be the right thing to do
even if it wasn't a Philmont requirement! Besides, it turns out that
this is really fun stuff, and it's especially rewarding when you hear
back from one of your students about how the course made a difference
in some emergency situation they encountered.

All this being said, there is a lot to running a really over-the-top
course that isn't in the instructor manual. It helps to find someone
with experience and go co-teach with them. We got great help from our
Sam Houston Area Council neighbors at www.scoutcpr.org - they run a
fantastic program and are still our models - I know they've helped
bootstrap quite a few programs around the country. We'd be happy to do
what we can to help bootstrap anyone too - contact me if you're
interested.

T.W. Cook
Capitol Area Council (Central Texas)
ARC First Aid/CPR/AED/WFAB instructor
Wilderness First Responder (Wilderness Medicine Institute)
Philmont 2005 622-N5 and 2007 801-C1
SM Troop 151 / Assoc Advisor Crew 911 / Mate Ship 911
sm@troop151.com

-------------------------------------------------------
Scouting E-mail Discussion Lists @ usscouts.org
Listserv Commands at http://usscouts.org/lists/lc.asp
-------------------------------------------------------
Send listserv commands to: listserv@troop47.com
Send postings to: philmont@troop47.com
List FAQ found at: http://usscouts.org/lists/faq.asp
List Administrator: philmont_owner@troop47.com
-------------------------------------------------------
To Unsubscribe send text email to:

     To: listserv@troop47.com
     Subject: unsubscribe
     Body: unsubscribe philmont@troop47.com
-------------------------------------------------------

As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
-------------------------------------------------------

 
Received on Thu Apr 19 16:22:09 2007