AWLS-New River Gorge 2010 Course
We will be trying a new location and format this year! We are excited, and hope you will join us:
Date: August 20-22, 2010
Location: Rivermen New River Gorge Adventure Center on the New River, Fayetteville WV
Course Director: Randy Howell (contact for questions not answered by Course Guide or this website)
To Register: registration is available on-line or by US Mail.
To register on-line, click on the following link. Note that there is $10 on-line registration fee (to partially cover the fee charged to us by PayPal). Click Here to Register Online via PayPal
To register by US Mail, open the 2010 Course Guide below and send in the registration form on the final page.
Click Here for 2010 Course Guide (includes topics, schedule, faculty, US mail registration form)
To Help Us Promote This Course: Download a poster here and post in your community!
What is AWLS?
Advanced Wilderness Life Support (AWLS) is a 3- or 4-day course designed for healthcare professionals, to convert their medical training into a form usable in limited resource ("wilderness") environments. Anybody with a healthcare license or certification is eligible (EMT, RN, PA, MD, DO). Non-healthcare providers can also take the same course but receive certification in Basic Wilderness Life Support (BWLS). The curriculum was developed at the University of Utah in the late 1980s and has continued to be refined since then. AdventureMed, an organization founded to manage the AWLS program, now licenses other institutions to teach it. More information about the AWLS curriculum and AdventureMed is available at www.awls.org. ACWM is currently the only licensee in the southern Appalachians to teach the course annually. We have a deep, multi-institutional faculty which features instructors from a diverse range of states and backgrounds. For more information on our AWLS version, consult our 2010 Course Guide. Note that our syllabus is dynamic and changes every year, so previous manuals should only be used as a rough guide for future course content and structure. Our AWLS course is currently hosted by Rivermen at the New River Gorge Adventure Center.
2009 AWLS-Linville Gorge Course
Morganton NC, Sept 25-28, 2009 - Our largest class ever assembled in western NC for this installment of our AWLS-Linville Gorge course. Highlights included practical exams around the Western Piedmont Community College lake and an optional day spent doing advanced modules in Linville Gorge at the North Carolina Outward Bound Table Rock basecamp. We also had our most diverse and talented faculty lineup ever, with instructors drawn from around the country, and our first students who travelled from outside North America to attend. A fantastic weekend!
2008 AWLS-Linville Gorge Course
Morganton NC, Sept 26-29, 2008 - Our 2008 Advanced Wilderness Life Support Course was a great success. We added even more advanced topics, with an entire day of additional modules beyond the core AWLS curriculum, to give the students the best training possible.
ACWM partnered with MedCenter Air, the Carolinas Medical Center medical helicopter service, and Palmetto Health-University of South Carolina School of Medicine Simulation Center to stage a truly unique “Wilderness Megacode”. Students trained on a $40,000+ simulation mannequin through a variety of hands-on scenarios in the wilderness. Ultimately the mannequin was hot-loaded onto a medevac helicopter which flew it from the simulated wilderness environment.
Over 40 students traveled from around the country to NC to participate in this uniquely-formatted AWLS course which included more than three days of classroom and hands-on outdoor training. Participants gave the course rave reviews, and returned to their home communities better equipped to care for patients in wilderness, resource-deficient and austere environments.
“It’s a beautiful area, and the course was taught by intelligent and fun staff,” said one medical student from West Virginia. “A+!”
Course Description
"Learn the skills to prevent medical problems, reduce suffering and save lives in non-traditional medical settings"
- Earn your Advanced Wilderness Life Support certification
- Learn the latest practical hands-on wilderness medicine skills for patient assessment, treatment and evacuation protocols
- Practice your skills in live scenarios with our expert instructors
- Obtain up to 17.5 hours of category 1 CME*, or nursing or EMS continuing education credit, through the Wilderness Medical Society
- Receive credits toward Fellowship certification in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine
Course Objectives
- To provide a practical foundation in Wilderness Medicine for medical professionals
- To teach patient assessment and treatment guidelines for life support until definitive care or evacuation is available
- To train the provider in methods for managing medical and traumatic emergencies and urgencies in the wilderness when evacuation is unavailable or unnecessary.
Topics Include
|
|
*The Wilderness Medical Society designates this educational activity for a maximum of 17.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. 17.5 credits or credit hours are also available for RN and EMS continuing education credit.
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through joint sponsorship of the Wilderness Medical Society and AdventureMed. The Wilderness Medical Society is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.