Wilderness First Responder (Days 1-6)
The wilderness is defined as “a wild and uncultivated region, as of forest or desert, uninhabited or inhabited only by wild animals.” Unless you consider our campers and staff wild animals, this would not really fit the description of Camp Birch Hill. The skills I am learning in this course, however, extend to all locales far and near, and will be invaluable at camp. The main idea behind all of the techniques we are learning is the stabilization of the patient for transfer to medical professionals. While I will most likely never encounter 99% of the situations I have learned this week, it has been a fun and enriching experience nonetheless.
The key to staying healthy the back country, at camp, or anywhere really is prevention of ailments. The most important theme of the week has been the maintenance of hydration in all cases. Staying hydrated will allow our bodies to fend off many types and varieties of sicknesses so that we will not have to deal with them to begin with. Beyond hydration, common sense takes care of many other factors. That being said, there is still the chance of slips and falls, unexpected weather, falling branches, and many other possible hazards we may not see coming.
Some of the highlights of the class have been our occasions to feign illnesses so our classmates can put to practice what we have learned indoors. Braving subzero temperatures I have had to lay on the snow pretending to be unconscious until my rescuers figured out what to do in that particular instance. Sometimes it involved hiding fake bruises on my arms, legs, or stomach while other cases required the dousing of fake blood. Today I laid prostrate on the crusty ice and snow and had to give the impression to my rescuer that I was suffering from heat stroke in the desert. This could not have been further from the truth in reality, where I was on the verge of hypothermia.
All in all, if I am now confronted with a camper reporting any type of bodily issue I am confident that I will know what to do and how to assess what is going on. On another note, today we covered how to assist in back country childbirth, something I know for sure I will not encounter at camp this or any summer!
