San Antonio Wilderness Herbal First Responder Certification 2020

The Wilderness Herbal First Responder is 92 hours of Wilderness First Aid combined with remote and post-disaster herbalism. The WHFR also includes a 40-hour WFA certification card through the Emergency Care and Safety Institute (ECSI), CPR certification, and a Wilderness First Responder certification through The Human Path.

This is the merging of the worlds of remote or post-disaster medicine (“ditch medicine”) with the world of herbalism and includes most of the herbal information and all (plus some) of the hands-on experience of the Herbal Medic Basic course. PLUS, this course includes all of the wilderness first responder curriculum that allows the student to be a competent first aid provider right from the get-go in the case of illness, injury or even chronic health issue.

FULL COURSE DESCRIPTION IS BELOW.

This course is geared toward a number of different types of students:
• The outdoor enthusiast, camp counselor, outdoor recreational employee who wants in-depth training on injury and illness management in the field.

• The camper, hiker or rock-climber who wants more much more intensive learning, geared toward outdoor environments, than a standard first aid course.

• The prepper (disaster preparedness) who wants to be self-sufficient medically and not even necessarily reliant on orthodox pharmaceuticals.

• The herbalist who wants higher intensity training across the board from wilderness first aid to herbal medicine in a remote environment.

• The emergency medicine professional who wants to expand his/her horizons into indefinite medical care that includes botanical medicines (field herbalism).

The full course includes all of the following skills:

• Legal definitions and introduction to Wilderness Medicine
• Working in a chronic vs. acute disaster situation
• 1, 2, 3 person carries and stretcher carries, improvisation with limited equipment
• Common backcountry Injuries – The ankle, OTTAWA Rules, establishing CSM
• Bandaging/Taping Techniques #1: Ankle wrap (lecture and hands-on)
• Shock, Types, Herbs for Shock.
• Bio-regional Plant walk
• Introduction to knots and lashings
• Bandaging/Taping Techniques #2: Head Injuries (lecture and hands-on)
• Primary Survey
• Secondary Survey (lecture and hands-on practice)
• Bio-regional Herb Lesson: Decoctions in the field
• Herbs for Head, Ears, Eyes, Nose, Throat Ailments in the Field
• Patient Carries: Cocoon wrap (demo and practice)
• Herb Lesson: Percolation tincturing in the field (demo and hands-on practice)
• Bandaging/Taping Techniques #3:  Shoulder to Ribs
• Slings
• Bandaging/Taping Techniques #4: Occlusive Dressings and their uses
• Bandaging/Taping Techniques #5: Compression Bandages (demo and practice)
• Bandaging/Taping Techniques #6: Field Expedient Tourniquets (lecture, demo and practice)
• Pelvic Injuries
• Bandaging/Taping Techniques #7: Buddy Splinting (demo and hands-on practice)
• Bio-Regional Plant Walk
• Bandaging/Taping Techniques #8: Traction Splints
• Open vs. Closed Fractures (lecture)
• Mini Scenarios (hands on practice of skills)
• Wound and Infection Management Lecture
• 4 Stages of Wound Healing
• Bio-regional herbs for Wound Management
• Precordial Thump
• Heimleich Maneuver: Self-administered, for an upright patient, for a supine patient
• Clearing the Airway
• CPR in the Field
• CPR Basics
• CPR and AED testing
• Secondary Survey Practical Exercise
• The Austere Team: Provider roles in the field. Food allergies. (team exercise)
• Environmental Hazards: Heat, Cold, Lightning strikes
• Snakes and venomous bites
• Spiders and Insects
• Poisonous plants in the field
• Interactive Team Stations: Wound Closure using Steri-strips and irrigating the wound
• EPI pens in the field and anaphylaxis
• Sawyer Extractors for venomous bites and stings
• Pin-hole glasses for snow blindness
• The Austere Team: Provider assessment of team provisions (team exercise #2)
• Bandaging/Splinting Techniques #8: Knee testing and wrapping (demo and hands-on practice)
• Mini Scenarios: triage exercise
• Clearing the C-Spine (Lecture and practice)
• Tourniquet Conversion in the field
• Knots: The water knot for rescue harnesses
• Interactive Team Stations: Creating a rescue harness
• Tourniquet conversion
• Clearing the C-Spine
• Compression bandaging
• The Austere Team: Provider assessment and plan for quantities of provisions and necessary gear
• Bio-Regional Herb Lesson:  wildcrafting and field medicine preparations
• Making activated charcoal, part 1 (hands-on)
• Final Exam
• Lecture: Emergencies in the field – from drownings to hypoglycemia
• Building a first aid kit
• Review of final exam
• Making activated charcoal, part 2 (hands-on0
• Bio-Regional Herb Lesson: completion of field medicine making preparation
• Radio and Commo in an austere environment (lecture)
• The Austere Team: Provider lecture wrap up of provision amounts, gear and transport (team exercise)
• Base Camp Set Up Exercise: interactive team hands-on training
• (Working in a post-disaster environment, creating an area of operations for mobile medic teams, the dispatch and holding area, gear inventory, working with emergency radios and establishing clinic, dispatch and mobile rescue teams)
• Group Scenarios: post disaster response
• 10th Day Triage
• Establishing of an Incident Command Center
• Team Exercise: Triage exercise for emergency with multiple injuries
• Completion and Course Graduation