The National Conference on Wilderness Medicine

Santa Fe, New Mexico

May 28 - June 1, 2025

OPTIONAL WORKSHOPS

PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED & CLASS SIZES LIMITED
The optional workshops listed below are offered in conjunction with the conference to enhance your experience.  Reserve your spot for optional workshops on the main conference registration page.

Making a fire wilderness survival

WILDERNESS & URBAN SURVIVAL SKILLS

Wednesday, May 28, 2025
8:00 AM - 4:00 PM, $150

A unique opportunity to learn and practice both basic and advanced survival skills from a Navy Seal Instructor and other renowned survival experts who train our elite Special Forces. This all-day hands-on” workshop is a practical and fun, skill-building experience designed to prepare you to survive on land, in the sea, in wilderness and urban environments. Limited enrollment (register early!)

Participants will learn how to:

  • Signal and “be found”
  • Obtain food and water
  • Build fires with primitive tools
  • Escape a hotel fire
  • Construct & improvise survival kits
  • Deal with a plane crash
  • Protect yourself during a disaster
  • Travel safely in developing countries and avoid being “ripped off”
  • Find and construct emergency shelters

Instructors: Gary Kibbee, Scott Kuipers, and Philip White

demonstrating a splint in the wilderness

PRACTICAL SPLINTING SKILLS

Thursday, May 29, 2025
1:15 - 2:30 PM, $75

Orthopedic and soft tissue injuries are among the most common problems encountered in the wilderness. A properly applied splint can have a variety of positive impacts and may make the difference between being ambulatory and needing an air evacuation. Learn techniques for immobilizing fractures and severe sprains using SAM® Splints and other improvised devices (you will receive a SAM® Splint to practice with and keep).

Faculty: Kyle Allred, PA-C.

Includes 1.25 additional AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™

wilderness Medicine CME course optional urban survival workshop

URBAN & TRAVEL SURVIVAL

Thursday, May 29, 2025
1:30 - 5:30 PM, $80

You have just lost all of your belongings and your passport in an earthquake or act of terrorism. Your hotel was destroyed, and your companion is missing. Few Americans are prepared to cope with this type of crisis. Urban and travel survival can be more challenging than survival in the backcountry. Learn how to travel safely and protect yourself.

Instructors: Gary Kibbee and Philip White

Ropes & Knots workshop

ROPES AND KNOTS FOR WILDERNESS MEDICINE AND RESCUE

Thursday, May 29, 2025
1:30 - 3:30 PM, $60

Learn key knots and how to use them in rescue, swiftwater, and improvised medical care. Grasp the fundamentals of Life Safety Ratings and what knots and equipment are appropriate when dealing with rescue loads and risks.

In this comprehensive workshop, participants will learn the essentials of life safety rope equipment and knot techniques. Through hands-on practice, attendees will gain expertise in utilizing these skills for both land and swift-water rescue operations. Additionally, the course will cover the application of these techniques for improvised medical care, equipping participants with vital knowledge for emergency situations.

Instructor: Carl Gilmore

Wilderness Survival CME Course

WILDERNESS NAVIGATION AND TRACKING

Thursday, May 29, 2025
1:30 - 4:30 PM, $80
Saturday, June 1, 2025
1:30 - 4:30 PM, $80

Learn wilderness navigation and tracking skills in this interactive workshop. Navigation skills include: terrain interpretation, topographic map navigation, utilizing a compass, and mapping apps accessed from a cell phone.

Then transition to learning the lost art of tracking and the ability to notice subtle disturbances in the environment left behind by others (called “sign cutting”). These skills are fun to learn and can be life-saving.

Instructor: Scott Kuipers 

Patient-Assessment-Wilderness-Medicine-thumbnail

PRACTICAL WILDERNESS MEDICINE SKILLS

Friday, May 30, 2025
1:30 - 3:30 pm, $60

Learn the art and skills necessary to perform effective backcountry assessment of an injured patient. Participants will also learn and practice improvised splinting techniques using materials commonly found in the backcountry.

Instructor: Carl Gilmore

Wilderness Survival training CME course

WILDERNESS SURVIVAL SKILLS

Friday, May 30, 2025
1:30 - 5:30 pm, $80

This workshop is a hands-on skill-building experience. You will learn how to construct shelters, obtain food and water, build fires with primitive tools, signal, track, route-find, improvise clothing, and build survival kits.

Instructors: Gary Kibbee, Scott Kuipers 

Basic wound workshop

Wilderness Wound Management

Friday, May 31, 2024
1:00 - 3:00 pm, $80
3:30 – 5:30 pm, $80

A practical workshop on cleaning and suturing a laceration in a non-sterile environment. Participants will have the opportunity to practice suturing, stapling, taping, and tissue gluing techniques on pig limbs. All supplies provided.

Instructor: Lanny Johnson PA-C

Includes 2 additional AMA PRA Category 1 Credits.™

CME Course Big Sky Summer optional basic

TRAVEL INTEL & IMPROVISED CARE FOR WILDERNESS AND INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

Saturday, May 31, 2025
1:30 - 5:30 pm, $80

As a medical professional, people often look to you for direction in almost any emergent incident. Even with decades of medical and rescue experience, the most complicated incidents we've encountered have been on our “off time” with no equipment available. In this class, we will gather medical information in preparation for foreign travel and practice improvising the medical equipment needed for care and extrication. Stop the Bleed skills and TECC will be practiced along with use of multi-victim triage.

Instructors: Gary Kibbee and Philip White

Shoulder_Spika_Wilderness_Med

LEARN HOW TO REDUCE & SPLINT DISLOCATIONS

Saturday, May 31, 2025
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm, $60

Learn how to recognize, reduce, and splint dislocations of the shoulder, elbow, fingers, hip, and Patella.

Instructor: Lanny Johnson, PA-C

Includes 1.5 additional AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™

For more information or to register please call

844-WILDCME (844-945-3263)

or

UPCOMING CME DESTINATIONS BY DATE