Another goal of the program is to increase student involvement with WMS and wilderness medicine in general. We discuss WMS membership and conferences, the Fellowship in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine (FAWM), Diploma in Mountain Medicine (DiMM), Wilderness First Aid (WFA), and Advanced Wilderness Life Support (AWLS) programs and how to include wilderness medicine in one’s career. Each event is now recorded and uploaded to the
WMS YouTube page for anyone unable to attend a live session. The journal club series has also been approved for
FAWM credits through WMS to residents and students in healthcare fields; the second educational series to offer free FAWM credits. The other program to do so is the
Wild Med Wednesday Lecture Series, which is run by the Yale online PA program. The two series have been working together to increase student involvement and access to this type of training earlier in medical education.
Developing the Wilderness Medicine Journal Club has allowed people who would have otherwise never met to interact and discuss topics in wilderness medicine. These events have facilitated networking between students and residents from across the country as well as internationally, and even led to the creation of the Student Interest Group Leadership Council, facilitated by WMS. The council is currently working on creating a centralized source of information about wilderness medicine opportunities available to students and residents. There are quite a few wilderness medicine academic and skills opportunities, but it can be tough to locate the information. By consolidating these resources, this group will help increase access to the many that are available.
Even with the slow return to pre-COVID type events, online training will likely continue to grow. I believe that programs like these can help us stay connected, make it easier to be involved, and will be a beneficial resource for supporting medical education.