Talk:Wilderness first responder

Links to training providers
Agree that Wikipedia is not a directory. Medical Officer specifically is a sponsor of WMA courses. References to NOLS/WMI, WMA and SOLO should stay because of their impact on defining this field of study. SOLO invented the WFR curriculum. WMI and WMA as the respective first aid schools for NOLS and Outward Bound had a lot to do with spreading the concept.

Due to their long operating history and extensive (sometimes global) course schedules, SOLO, WMI and WMA probably have trained 80-90% of the WFRS floating around. Powells, Barnes and Noble, Borders and REI usually carry books published by folks associated with WMI or WMA. See especially The Outward Bound Wilderness First Aid Handbook from folks associated with WMA which provides a concise systems approach that helped this layman organize his medical knowledge into an efficient and robust "mental model." Also see WMI's Buck Tilton's textbook The Wilderness First Responder which is close to encylopedic in its coverage.

I notice that other wikipedia articles sometimes include see also, references and external links. I believe the edit went too far. Not sure how to re-add with out re-verting. —Preceding unsigned comment added by GageParker (talk • contribs)


 * I was bold, I think your reverting and opening a discussion is entirely appropriate if you disagree with it.


 * I appreciate that there can be good reason to mention significant providers - but I don't think a list is a good idea. How about we provide the sort of context into the article that you have in your post above?  -- Siobhan Hansa 14:09, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

The first chapter in Buck Tilton's book (see above) has a few paragraphs on the history of Wilderness Medicene and how the WFR program became a natural extension of US Department of Transportation concept of First Responder. I will try to extract and cite Buck's book.GageParker 15:20, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

need help making references work correctly.GageParker 05:15, 26 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Wow Gage - that's a great addition! Do you still need help with the references?  They look fine. -- Siobhan Hansa 11:36, 26 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I think I have how to for referencing figured out. It took a couple of tries to recognize I need to put some kind of end ref in. I need to add a few more ibids to properly recognize the source of history facts I took from Buck Tilton's book.

fiddling around?
74.12.150.161 wrote: (NOLS did not purchase WMI until 2001 and did not run WFR courses previously. WMI was founded by WMA and SOLO staff so how can WMI/NOLS have come before WMA & SOLO?)

Sentence referrred to did not mention WMI nor WFR. I will agree to leave at "organizations such as Solo"

History of NOLS and WMI
Though I missed the beginning of the thread, WMI was founded by Buck Tilton and Melissa Gray, both SOLO instructors. NOLS purchased WMI on Sept 1, 1999 and WMI moved its headquarters to Lander, WY (home of NOLS) in the summer of 2002. Gates Richards 22:32, 20 July 2007 (UTC)Gates Richards

Thanks! Inital part of the thread was complaining about my claim that SOLO and NOLS started teaching wilderness first aid to their instructors as early as 1970's. (I got this tidbit from my copy of Buck Tilton's The Wilderness First Responder!)

The anonymous Canadian editor questioned this statement and removed the reference to NOLS noting in the comments the rhetorical question "how could that be if WMI wasn't founded until years later?" (note the editor's unstated assumption that NOLS would have been incapable of developing a wilderness first aid course for its instructors without the presence of WMI).

I did not argue too much because the resulting revision left it as "Solo and other organizations..."

Thanks for starting an article on WMI. I hope the WMA guys get something going soon. GageParker 20:58, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

My pleasure, Gage. NOLS did start teaching wilderness medicine to its instructors in the 70's, as you originally pointed out. Tod Schimelpfenig (current curriculum director for WMI and former Risk Management Director, Rocky Mountain Branch Director and instructor for NOLS was integral in the development of the NOLS wilderness first aid courses. NOLS stopped offering certification under their own name in the mid-90's.

It's nice to see that there are folks out there tracking the history of wilderness medicine!

Gates Richards 22:25, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for you confirmation. I will update the article. BTW. I took my inital WFR class from WMA in Austin TX sponsored by UT and then refreshed with WMI in a City of Eugene OR "River House" class. I enjoyed both and think I took them in the right order. I really needed WMA's theory and whole systems approach when I was starting out. I also valued the practical, detail orientation of the WMI course when I was refreshing.