Wilderness First Responder: Are Skills Soon Forgotten?

Area of Science:

• Emergency Medicine
• Wilderness Medicine
• Medical Education

Background:

• Wilderness first responders (WFRs) provide critical medical care in remote, isolated environments.
• Effective application of WFR training is essential due to delayed access to advanced medical care.
• There is a lack of research specifically evaluating WFR skill and knowledge retention between certifications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the gap in research regarding skill and knowledge retention among WFRs.
• To review existing literature on skill and knowledge retention in related responder groups.
• To hypothesize the likely pattern of skill and knowledge decay in WFRs based on related studies.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of studies on skill and knowledge retention in trained responders over the past four decades.
• Analysis of trends in skill and knowledge loss across various professional and lay responder groups.
• Synthesis of findings to infer potential retention patterns for WFRs.

Main Results:

• Existing literature consistently documents a decline in skills and knowledge over time among various trained responders.
• This pattern of decay is observed in both professional and lay responder populations.
• No specific studies were found that directly assess WFR skill and knowledge retention.

Conclusions:

• Based on related responder groups, it is hypothesized that WFRs will likely experience increasing skill loss shortly after certification.
• A concurrent, though potentially slower, decrease in knowledge retention is also anticipated for WFRs.
• Further research is critically needed to empirically document or refute these assumed patterns of skill and knowledge decay in WFRs.