Wilderness Training for Medical Students— An Introduction

Abstract

The growing popularity of wilderness medicine extends to medical students, many of whom have joined the Wilderness Medical Society. However, students in the United States have typically had to look outside their curriculum for training in this discipline and (even after becoming physicians) have received no recognition for the training other than continuing education units (CEUs). In Europe, by contrast, there are many courses leading to a diploma in mountain medicine, which qualifies physicians to lead mountain rescue teams or act as expedition doctors.1 As Dr Macias and his colleagues describe, there is now at least 1 thriving program in the United States that adds wilderness medicine to the medical school curriculum. If enough other schools follow this example, wilderness medicine will doubtless become a popular elective and will perhaps someday be recognized through a certification program that physicians can add to their qualifications. Certainly, the number of applications for the positions in the New Mexico program (which was not even advertised, except by word of mouth) and the very positive participant reviews should encourage medical schools to develop similar programs. Unlike European diploma courses, the New Mexico rotations in wilderness and travel medicine did not require participants to be experts in wilderness skills. Instead, they included wilderness survival and skills train-