Who is Responsible for a Graduate's Skill Retention

This is an excellent practical question! Since students remember the skills and information they use on a regular basis, skill retention is shared by the wilderness medicine provider, their employer(s), and the graduate.

1. Wilderness medicine providers are responsible for:

• delivering the course material in a practical hands-on manner with as many skill labs and simulations as possible so students are able to grasp the required concepts and skills.
• providing on-going case studies and updates via blogs, newsletters, and other media to aid a graduate's knowledge retention.
• providing a field handbook and/or app that gives graduates access to assessment and treatment data.
• providing training and training options to a graduate's employers so they can run effective simulations and training sessions for their staff on a regular basis.

   
2. Employers of wilderness medicine graduates are responsible for:

• taking advantage of the training opportunities and strategies offered by the wilderness medicine providers.
• providing on-going simulation training, case study review, and discussion of possible problems—including their assessment and treatment—that their trips may encounter to their employees.

   
3. Graduates are responsible for:

• taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the wilderness medicine providers and their employers.
• taking a recertification course when they think their skills are becoming inadequate even if the course is before their certification expires.

Follow-up questions include (and will be addressed in later blog articles):

1. What are the most effective delivery strategies for providers?
2. What are the most effective strategies for employers to use to maintain their employees' assessment and treatment skills?
3. What kind of medical training do outdoor program administrators and directors need so they can make preemptive program design changes and on-going training decisions for their programs? This is especially true when it comes to preparing staff to deal with environmental problems. For example, program directors need to understand heat acclimatization in order to design training sessions and protocols for trips where the heat challenge may suddenly increase. They need to understand the physics behind lightning to train staff how to manage a rapid descent from an exposed ridge when an unexpected lightning storm approaches. Etc.
   

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