Staff from Aerie and the Student Conservation Association recently provided disaster preparedness and MCI training to 170 employees of the Washington Conservation Corps in Lacey and Mount Vernon, WA. WCC is an incredibly skilled and experienced group with a long and inspiring history of providing disaster relief throughout the US. These trainings occurred over three days, using 3, 20-patient simulated mass-casualty events as the focal points for teaching and review. Events such as these are perfect opportunities for an organization to review its risk management and training policies, and provide participants with an awareness of what to expect from such an event and how they can better prepare if they are confronted with such a difficult scenario. In 2009, Aerie has trained over 300 WCC staff in wilderness medicine and MCI/ disaster preparedness. We are honored to work with such an amazing group.

This year’s Wilderness Risk Management conference, held in Raleigh-Durham, NC, was a productive event for Aerie. Each year, we use the conference as an opportunity to meet with leaders of other wilderness medicine training providers, most notably WMI and WMA . After speaking at length with Tod Schimelpfenig, Curriculum Director of WMI, and Dr. David Johnson, President and Medical Director of WMA, about a wide range of issues, from industry standardization to curriculum decisions, I am again convinced of their organizations’ outstanding quality. It is petty, disingenuous and self-defeating to suggest otherwise. Although some dangerous outliers exist, the defacto wilderness medicine industry standards are extremely high. This fact alone inspires Aerie to maintain our excellence. All organizations benefit from industry quality, and will suffer from its lack. While WMA and WMI are our competitors, they also help define our industry, which is equally if not more important than the challenge of competition. Wilderness medicine students are looking for quality education, and the industry needs to provide a product that serves their needs and represents the industry well. Our students move between organizations to certify and recertify, and then they represent the industry by taking their education out into the field and practicing their skills. We are happy that many of our competitors provide such outstanding courses, benefiting our common students and the industry as a whole.