OSU Student Recommendations for Wilderness Med Elective in Utah.
Our experience was great and I would recommend this rotation to anyone, especially those with any interest in the outdoors. The medical topics are mostly related to emergency/internal medicine, but I am entering surgery, and I really loved the course and found it very interesting practical. The coordinator of this course, Dr. Rich Ingebretsen, will go out of his way to ensure the Ohio State students have a wonderful experience.
As an overview of the month, there are two weeks of search and rescue training (SAR) and two weeks of wilderness medicine lectures/training. The first and last weeks are SAR, while the middle two weeks are wilderness medicine. The SAR is taught by a member of the Utah SAR team, and is mainly on campus. Justin was our teacher (and he will be there for at least one more year), and he made the course really fun, while still teaching us a ton. The first week consists of lectures and hands on practice with finding and packaging the patient in the wilderness (rope anchor and belay systems, knots, sleds, etc), as well as the psychology of the lost patient. The last week of SAR (the fourth week of the month) is basically a series of mock rescue scenarios carried out in the surrounding mountains and wilderness, utilizing topics from both the SAR course and the wilderness med lectures. At various points during the SAR course there are opportunities to shadow in the clinics at the ski resorts, tour SAR helicopter areas and tag along for a real SAR mission (if there are any during the month). We also got to help train the SAR dogs at one of the resorts, and were buried in snow and rescued in exchange for free lift tickets to Brighton for the day!
The middle two weeks of the month are spent learning wilderness medicine. This course is lecture based, with many different speakers talking about their areas of expertise. The lecture categories included trauma, environmental problems, medical emergencies in the wilderness, bites stings and infections, and tools and techniques. During the middle weekend of this two week course, we traveled to Moab to practice practical medical skills in an outdoor setting, as well as learn about medical issues specific to hiking, biking and climbing. On Sunday of this weekend, there is a rafting trip down the Colorado for those interested.
Logistically, we spent basically the entire month in Salt Lake, with most activities centered around the U (one weekend we went to Moab for the course, and other people traveled to other areas during free weekends to camp/sightsee). Some of us stayed near the U campus in places found on craigslist (or through other avenues similar to regular away rotations). Others stayed with family as far as one hour away, while another group stayed in a rental unit in a house in Sandy, Utah. Salt Lake City is pretty easy to navigate and does have public transportation (light rail/bus), but if you do not stay close to campus a car is a must. I would highly recommend the apartment in Sandy for a group of 2-3 students. The link is below, and John (our host) was great. A rental car is a must with this setup, but we got a great deal with Fox rentals ($400 for the month).
http://www.ownerdirect.com/snowbird/vacation-rentals/103865.htm
Another great aspect of this rotation is that there is plenty of free time to see family or explore all that Utah has to offer. There are tons of world class ski resorts within 45 minutes of downtown, great hikes, mountain biking, snowshoeing, etc. The U also has a great equipment rental facility (similar to our outdoor center at the ARC), where you can rent cheap gear for camping, skiing, biking, etc. The SAR lectures typically take up half the day (so the other half is free to do as you please), while the wilderness med lectures are only at night (freeing up many days to enjoy the ski resorts, hikes, bike rides, etc).
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