Wilderness Medicine Simulation-Based Teaching Program for Medical Students in the UK

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Wilderness Medicine
• Curriculum Development

Background:

• UK undergraduate medicine curricula lack sufficient wilderness medicine training opportunities.
• Student interest in wilderness medicine is high.
• A low-cost, replicable teaching weekend was developed to address this gap.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a student-led wilderness medicine teaching weekend.
• To assess participant confidence, learning, and satisfaction.
• To determine the feasibility of integrating such a program into the undergraduate medical curriculum.

Main Methods:

• A weekend course included small-group lessons on remote medicine roles and acute care.
• Practical skills stations covered triage, splinting, and rope stretcher construction.
• Participant confidence was measured pre- and post-course using the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test.

Main Results:

• 61 medical students attended, rating the course highly for usefulness and learning.
• 92% strongly agreed the course was high quality.
• A statistically significant improvement in perceived confidence was observed (P<0.001).

Conclusions:

• Structured, low-cost teaching weekends can address the lack of national wilderness medicine education.
• This model can be integrated into undergraduate medical curricula with minimal disruption.
• The program effectively enhances student confidence and skills in wilderness medicine.