Emergency Care Guidelines for Wilderness First Response: A Field Guide

Wilderness first response includes search and rescue, ski patrol, wilderness and park rangers, rural law enforcement, trip leaders, Good Samaritans, or any other first responder in an austere environment when definitive medical care is an hour or more away. Any individual participating in wilderness first response and operating as an EMR, EMT, AEMT, or paramedic should be operating under the direction of a physician medical director and with protocols established by that medical director. These guidelines are designed for wilderness first response personnel at the BLS level or below, but could be helpful for any level of medical training. All personnel should have as a minimum basic first aid training and CPR certification. Ideally, they will have been trained in Wilderness First Aid (WFA) or Wilderness First Responder (WFR). Although all wilderness first response is ideally directed by an experienced wilderness medicine physician, this is often not the case. These guidelines will give evidence-based direction for wilderness first response and are best employed under the supervision of a physician medical director.