Slow-burn emergencies
- Off her food since yesterday. The participant with Type 1 has been refusing meals as a power struggle — and now she’s sweaty, vague, and slurring at evening circle. If she can swallow, sugar now; recheck in fifteen.
- Day four of drizzle. The kid who never dries his socks has gone quiet and clumsy on the trail. Cold works its way into a group slowly, and shivering that stops on its own is worse, not better.
- “I’m fine” is doing a lot of work. A fall on the talus and a participant who deflects everything, medical questions included. Serial vitals don’t care about the group narrative — two sets make a trend.
Mid-season study order
Ordered for weeks-long trips and known rosters:
- Medical Emergencies — diabetes, seizures, and the conditions already on your roster
- Cold Injuries — the slow leak — wet feet, stopped shivering, and a group that hides it
- Patient Assessment — vitals are the check that doesn’t negotiate with the therapeutic frame
- Heat Illness — hydration and heat on trail days, caught before the dramatic end
- Evacuation — the field-to-office call: what to know, write, and send
Then pressure-test it
Interactive scenarios — one decision at a time, tempting mistakes included, debrief at the end:
- Sugar First — sugar while she can still swallow
- The Burrito — the wrap, before the shivering stops
- The Guy Who’s Fine — “I’m fine” meets two sets of vitals
The certification question, honestly. “Wilderness First Aid” isn’t a regulated credential. No government body defines what a WFA card means — it means whatever the company that printed it says it means. What counts in front of a patient is whether you can do the work. This course teaches the work, free, and issues a record of completion — not a certificate, and we won’t pretend otherwise. Your employer’s training requirement — typically WFR for field staff — stands, and this course doesn’t touch it. Use it to show up to staff training fluent, and to stay sharp mid-season when the recert is a long way off and the field is right now. If nobody requires you to hold a card, what you need are the skills, not the laminate.
What this is
Fifteen lessons, a 40-question knowledge check, sixteen practice scenarios, a printable field reference card, and a kit checklist. Free, no account, nothing recorded about you, source on GitHub. It teaches decision-making, not hands-on skill — practice the hands-on parts on a real, padded, complaining friend.
Adjacent worlds: outdoor event organizers — gravel races, ultras, festivals · youth sport coaches — XC, MTB & trail teams · nurses, medics & clinicians heading outdoors