WILDERNESS MEDICAL ELECTIVE

10 days (meets 2 week elective requirements)

An incredibly unique program like no other in Canada or the rest of the world. The very first medical elective in remote and wilderness medicine to run in Canada was developed by Wilderness Medical Associates Canada and was held in 2005.

This elective is designed for current medical students (usually 1st or 2nd year) who have an interest or desire to learn elements of  'practical medicine' . Practical medicine can defined as knowing "what's most important and what isn't important" and "what needs to happen right now" when dealing with a patient in untraditional settings when resources and personnel are limited. Wilderness medicine is considered in any context when resources are limited, environments are extreme, and patient care may be outside a traditional care centre for hours, days, weeks, or months.

The elective is a program designed with an intense focus for medicine being used in remote, wilderness, and unconventional settings. Unlike some other wilderness medical elective programs in North America, the focus here is strictly medicine and medical skills like no other. Although useful outdoor skills, we don't believe building campfires, learning how to hold a canoe paddle, or fixing a tent belong in a medical program. Your elective time in medical school is valuable and every second should be spent experiencing medicine and learning patient care. This is an intense streamlined medical program designed to prepare future physicians for work outside traditional tertiary care centres. There are plenty of other worthwhile outdoor skill programs if you desire, that can be done at your leisure.

Also unlike most other wilderness electives in North America, this curriculum was designed specifically for medical students and isn't borrowed or pasted together from other pre-existing programs.

The Wilderness Medical Elective has helped prepare students for medical work as diverse as medical rescue, expedition doctors, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders Canada (MSF), remote medical clinics, disaster relief, rural practices, and the military. Even students who have gone on to unrelated specialities, have commented that this elective has changed the way they "practically" think about medicine and approach patients and feel they have become much better physicians as a result.

Your instructors are considered as some of the best and most experienced in wilderness medicine in the world. Wilderness Medical Associates has been consistently recognized as the world leader in providing wilderness and remote medical courses to physicians, nurses, paramedics, and outdoor professionals. Other wilderness medical programs consider Wilderness Medical Associates the standard to match.

Starting in 2007, the Resident teaching program has also become part of this elective. Graduates of the Wilderness Medical Elective who are especially interested in evolving the field of wilderness medicine may apply to come and help teach the elective and apply it to teaching requirements they need for their Residency.

We usually only offer this program once or twice a year and interest has become overwhelming. We have limited enrolment and usually organize students through rural or wilderness medicine interest groups at specific medical schools. If your interest group would like to help organize an elective, please let us know and we can try to arrange dates that work for all of you. If you would like to attend the elective as an individual, please contact us as well and we will refer you to the next set of scheduled dates for the program. In order to receive credit, the Wilderness Medical Elective must be pre-approved by your electives office and advisor. We'll be happy to supply you with whatever help you need to make that happen.

 

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