About 2 years ago I took the Red Cross Wilderness First Aid course at a local chapter. At the time we were told that this wasn't an officially adopted nationwide Red Cross course and that it was something that had been developed in another state, but that this would soon be changing.
Apparently this has happened as the Red Cross is now advertising it on their national web site at http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.53fabf6cc033f17a2b1ecfbf43181aa0/?vgnextoid=42eebd7df52bb110VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD&currPage=45fb9603a7c96210VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD
Pre-requisite is Adult CPR/AED and 14 years of age.
As I said in another thread, I think this is just about the perfect level of training for CAP ground team members in that it does go over basic first aid better than our own SQTR tasks or the basic first aid classes taught by RC and others and also trains you in some of the basics of patient assessment, which I think is a critical skill in wilderness settings where it is entirely possible where you might have to be the "eyes" of a doctor talking you through something over cell phone or radio while waiting for the highly trained folks to get on scene. It also has a healthy dose of wilderness survival information as well.
As a 16 hour course it could easily be done by CAP members over a weekend, several weekends, or even during regular CAP meetings over a couple of months.
I agree but not all chapters are teaching it yet.
Yes, the class was just recently overhauled a few months ago. I am a huge advocate of making classes such as these mandatory for GTMs, and classes offered by NOLS optional but encouraged for GTLs.
Why? To make it more difficult to attain the rating without enhancing anything towards the missions we perform?
The pre-req for this class is what we currently need, and the GT curriculum teaches wildlife survival and outdoor skills as part of the rating.
There's nothing wrong with extra training, but we don't require things we don't need.
Quote from: Eclipse on June 06, 2010, 08:54:19 PMWhy?
Why to get us out of this plateau where we don't train for more advanced GSAR because we're never called upon for it...but we're never called upon for it because we don't train for it.
Quote from: Krapenhoeffer on June 06, 2010, 07:58:43 PM
Yes, the class was just recently overhauled a few months ago. I am a huge advocate of making classes such as these mandatory for GTMs, and classes offered by NOLS optional but encouraged for GTLs.
We've got another recent thread debating what should be mandatory for ground teams. This thread is aimed at it as a recommended course in so far as I am recommending it for all GT members.
The way to get increased activity and more advanced missions is to foster relationships at the local level with the appropriate agencies
and to start getting more top-down involvement with FEMA and similar Federal groups for our existing capabilities.
Then, based on their needs and requests, you train to what they need, with commitments upon completion of using those skills, and perhaps even some funding to get you where you need to be.
You don't go out and expend a bunch of money and effort on training with your fingers crossed that "if you build it, they will come".
Most of the areas we are actually active don't need wilderness SAR, or anything close to it - we need people with basic common sense and "stay out of trouble and do your job with eyes open and mouth shut" skills. Anywhere extended capabilities are needed can extended the requirements locally without making it a national mandate.
I am considering this class. Personally, I would rather train for a first responder license but the only class near me is a 3 hour round-trip drive twice a week for 2 months.
Either way, IMHO there should be at least one person on a team trained in assessing patients (which both wilderness first aid and first responder covers to some degree). This call is frequently answered by the many CAP members who are also EMTs, but not always. We should be able to accurately convey to EMS what to expect when they arrive (which you can do with basic first aid an common sense, but not to any degree of precision).
I'm not a Dr., nor do I play one on TV. We don't require the Red Cross 1st aid classes for our GT's due to cost. Instead we have our HSO's teaching the USAF "Buddy 1st Aid" course modified a little bit to meet our needs. We realized that this course will meet 99% of our needs and is approved by NHQ. Reality is you are far more likely to have to treat a team member who sprains an ankle or breaks a leg stepping in a hole or gets slapped in the face with a tree branch than a crash survivor with massive trauma. Since we are almost always in communications with our GT's via radio, cell phone and satellite phone, professional help is seldom farther than 30 minutes away by helicopter. We need to prepare ourselves for the realities. There is nothing wrong with encouraging people to take more training and becoming 1st responder qualified, but since we really aren't "1st Responders" in the real sense of the phrase, there is no need to require it of our members. If you make the requirements for GT qualifications too onerous, pretty soon you will have a base full of MB staff and aircrew and no GT capabilities. JMHO as a guy whose job it is to worry about these things.
Who said anything about First Responder? We're talking about the 16 hour Wilderness First Aid course.
Quote from: RiverAux on June 07, 2010, 12:03:12 PM
Who said anything about First Responder? We're talking about the 16 hour Wilderness First Aid course.
Why should I take that course? My state doesn't even have wilderness. I can't think of a single point in the state that is more than 30 minutes from an ambulance. It's a waste of time and money to require that for everyone. If your state's geography requires it then go for it but don't try and force it on areas that don't need it.
Quote from: davidsinn on June 07, 2010, 01:27:50 PM
It's a waste of time and money to require that for everyone. If your state's geography requires it then go for it but don't try and force it on areas that don't need it.
I did not propose making it a requirement, only a recommendation.
The problem with making something like this a recommendation is that someone will turn it into a requirement using the logic of "Since we recommend it, why not just require it so that everyone has it?" and/or some IG desk jockey will look at a "recommended" and read "required" and issue a finding based on "failure to complete required training" or "failure to follow best/recommended practices".
Holy moly folks, this is just a recommendation from RiverAux here on CAPTalk and not even something I'm proposing be put in 60-3.
Quote from: Krapenhoeffer on June 06, 2010, 07:58:43 PM
Yes, the class was just recently overhauled a few months ago. I am a huge advocate of making classes such as these mandatory for GTMs, and classes offered by NOLS optional but encouraged for GTLs.
Perhaps for GTM1...certainly not for GTM3, the basic rating.
...there was a reason that CAP dropped the Advanced First Aid requirement for GTL's... it was getting too hard to find a course. The ARC dropped it in the interest of pushing the Emergency First Response Course (a 40 hour first responder course). and despite the "agreement" no one seems to ever get "free" first aid training from the ARC.
Like posted above I would prefer a designated "first aider" (or what ever term you care to use) who has advanced "wilderness" type first aid or above (EMT's. paramedics still need the "wilderness" component) that is the focal point for injury care (be it team member or victim). I think in the FEMA resource typing document it had discussed a similar level for wilderness SAR teams.
I am slightly biased as an instructor, but ECSI has been offering this course for years; they have an 8, 16 and 36 hour course option. http://www.ecsinstitute.org/ (http://www.ecsinstitute.org/) Its relatively easy to become an instructor and to set up a teaching site. (pretty much they have an "equivilency" option if ou are an instructor for some other agency, ie AHA, ARC etc etc). The cost is usually up to the instructor; ie you need to have a book (WFA is $26 last time I checked) and the instructor resource kit ( $100ish), cards are like $10 a piece.
mk