Dr Georgina East / General Practitioner and Expedition Medic / Queenstown, New Zealand
Dr Daniel Lack / General Practitioner and Technical Rescue Specialist / Tasmania
Dr Robert Dickson / General Practitioner / Australian Antarctic Division, Tasmania
The Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments (HREE) programme at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) has been developed by organisations collaborating through the Centre for Antarctic Remote and Maritime Medicine (CARMM). Nurses, paramedics, and doctors can complete a range of postgraduate short-courses and full-credit university subjects which contribute to a Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma, or Master’s Degree in Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments. Courses and subjects can also be completed as standalone units. The coursework mixes online distance learning with in-person residential courses and camps. The residential components are also open to outdoor professionals, outdoor enthusiasts, and others looking to develop their skillset. You meet like-minded individuals, share some incredible experiences in the glorious outdoor playground of Tasmania, and, importantly, have the opportunity to formalise your learning in the burgeoning sector of outdoor/wilderness/remote/extreme medicine.
Key Facts
What: An eight-day immersive residential expedition medicine course
When: It runs three times a year in April, July, and December (see website link for specific dates)
Where: Two days at UTAS campus Launceston and six days at Mount Cameron Regional Reserve, North East Tasmania
How much:
- Health professionals: $5,990 AUD
- Non-health professionals: $2,995 AUD
- Students undertaking the Graduate Certificate in Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments: $5,175 AUD
Price includes course manual and pre-course education as well as all meals and accommodation while at the Mount Cameron Field Study Centre.
Qualification/Accreditation:
- Unit of credit counting towards the HREE Graduate Certificate
- Option for Wilderness First Aid certification (would require a further assessment day)
- ACRRM and RACGP QI&CPD points can be claimed for this course
Delegates:
A mix of nurses, paramedics, and doctors either enrolled in the HREE Graduate Certificate or completing the course as a stand-alone unit. As well as non-medical diverse outdoor educators, professionals, and enthusiasts.
The Course
The adventure starts at the University of Tasmania campus in Launceston on a Saturday morning with core sessions aiming to reinvent and refine the way we approach casualties outside a standard fluorescent-lit healthcare setting. Team bonding is high on the agenda. There is no better way to break the ice between new acquaintances than having to package and extricate them from the tricky beds of University shrubbery. This readied us for in-depth clinical sessions, pitched to the healthcare experience of the delegates.
By Sunday afternoon – after two days of learning and socialising – we felt like a bit of a crew. A bus took us to the Mount Cameron Field Study Centre for six days of masterfully curated experiential learning. It is here we bunked down and settled into a new pace. The food was excellent, mobile phone reception satisfyingly patchy and we were immersed in Tasmanian bushland. Mount Cameron is a towering granite dome that loomed above base camp, ready to be explored over the coming days.
Here we met the full faculty – one part experienced healthcare educators who have plenty of diverse outdoor clinical experience to share and one part technical outdoor gurus who certainly know their way around a rope. The coursework escalated and the days were full. There were sessions on everything from building shelters and ascending fixed lines to hypothermia, vertical rescues, and avalanches. The experience-based learning kicked into gear – scenarios showcasing the scheming creativity of the faculty and inspired the acting skills of the delegates. There were roles for everyone – as incident controllers, radio operators, patient escorts, and search teams. Without wanting to ruin any surprises – I will just say that things tend to escalate over the course of the week. Considerably.
The content
Pre-course:
- Self-paced online learning portal covering relevant clinical and non-clinical theory
- Course-specific expedition medicine manual
- Specific pre-reading lists covering important guidelines and articles
Key topics covered on the course:
- Pre-expedition healthcare planning
- Accident management, triage, and decision making
- Wound care, musculoskeletal injuries, dislocations, splints, and improvised stretchers
- Spinal injuries and regional anaesthesia
- Expedition medical kits and medications
- Search and rescue techniques and approaches
- Navigation and remote area communication
- Cold injuries, snow, avalanche, and high altitude medicine
- Dental emergencies
- Medicolegal aspects of expeditions
Post-course Assignment:
- For students enrolled in the HREE Graduate Certificate
- Involves designing a full logistics and medical plan for an expedition of your choosing
Apparently, it is not uncommon for students to actually do the adventure they devise a plan for – much to the envy of the assignment markers!
The Verdict
This course was excellent. I think the success rests on the course’s ability to impart a clear, structured approach to casualty management in outdoor, remote, and wilderness settings. Additionally, the faculty managed to create a setting conducive to authentic and challenging experiential learning. When I did this course I was still regularly engaging in mountain rescue operations in Colorado. By the time the halfway point had come around on this course, I felt like I was with my team in the Rockies. The scenarios put together were so realistic (including the time of day they occurred) that I felt right at home. The challenges of leading, or following others were as realistic as it was on an actual rescue. It is apparent that this realism is carefully cultivated by the faculty and it legitimately places you in a remote and extreme environment. This means that the medical and technical skills held (or recently learnt) by the team can be put to the test, with an appropriate level of stress and urgency.
I did this course having just finished medical school, I was craving the medical aspects of the course, but it was really the merging of the medical, technical, and remote environments that stuck with me. As with most courses of this nature, the connection with the faculty and other participants opens doors to like-minded friends and new opportunities in the field.
The course really does expose you to the field of expedition medicine in a way that touches reality.
Course link:
https://www.utas.edu.au/health/study/cpdu/expedition-medicine
Link to the pre-course reading (free registration):
https://hree.tsom.utas.edu.au/
Photos courtesy of: Dr Georgina East, Dr Daniel Lack, and Dr Robert Dickson
