Longleaf Wilderness Medicine

01/14/2026

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!

01/08/2026

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 in patient assessment is often taught using frameworks that don't reflect the diversity of patients encountered in modern EMS practice.

01/06/2026

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?

12/15/2025

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!

12/11/2025

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.

12/09/2025

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.

12/09/2025

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!

12/05/2025

Sometimes we don't have to go far for classes - we're excited to be teaching a WFA in our home community of Sandpoint, ID this weekend!

Regardless of the distance travelled, the handy mover is a HUGE help in moving gear around and is our favorite piece of office equipment.

12/03/2025

Let the 2026 WFR season begin! Half Acre Gym, Campus Recreation, we're coming for you (and so are your WFR books)!

11/27/2025

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're so thankful for our LWM community. Stay safe out there today - and if you see a turkey with a first aid kit, we recommend that you size up that scene one more time.

11/26/2025

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝘂𝘆 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴?

Use code 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬𝟐𝟎 to take 20% off of the newest editions of Remote Field Care and Wilderness Medicine Field Guide through 12/1.

11/22/2025

𝐒𝐨, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞?

Remote Field Care (RFC) is LWM's wilderness medicine textbook and is written in a narrative format. WFR students have been using the first edition since 2021. The second edition features a new section on leadership, increased focus on stress response in patients and responders, updated charts and images, and 40 new pages of current, research-based information and practices.

Instead of focusing solely on action like the Wilderness Medicine Field Guide, RFC gives more background about prevention, assessment, and treatment.

Would I take it on a kayak? 𝐀𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐧𝐨𝐭. It is a great option for a pre-trip resource, but would definitely get waterlogged (and really heavy) if it went for a swim. Weighing in at 1lb, leave it at home and pack a Field Guide and extra snacks instead.