first aid app

Beyond treating minor scrapes, blister care, bug bites/stings and which plants cause minor skin irritation, (all of which is stuff an outdoorsman should know!) I don't see a downloadable app offering much help in an emergency situation.

First aid training, and regular practice will help you not to panic in an emergency. 30 miles from a trailhead is NOT the time to decide you're going to dabble in wilderness EMS.

Understand the basics of traumatic injury and how to stop a bleeding wound (lacerations and punctures), how to immobilize a joint, basic splinting techniques.

Know how to recognize and treat SHOCK, hypothermia, and heat exhaustion/stroke.

Also learn to recognize potential spinal injuries, and how to appropriately administer spinal stabilization.

Consider the gear you carry and what applications that gear might have in applying first aid to others.

I think anyone experienced in first aid (wilderness or otherwise) is unlikely to develop or use an app. That's why you're finding so many entry level apps without the details you'd actually need. What exactly are you looking for? More wilderness first aid comes down to dehydration/rehydration, headstroke, frostbite, bee stings, sunburn, blisters, twisted ankles (R.I.C.E.) etc. Such remedies are easy to learn and memorize. Anything more complex should certainly not be referenced for the first time via app. I could only think of medicines and dosages as being useful in an app – and to that extent I don't know of one.

Diane, aren't you a veterinarian? What a then as a professional would you be looking for to be useful in an app?

Wilderness First Aid
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wilderness-first-aid-app/id631490478?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wfa_app.wildernessfirstaid

Medicine for the Outdoors
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/medicine-for-the-outdoors/id624067519?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.unbound.android.ubmo

This is only part of the puzzle, but drug reactions can be tricky, especially if you are a group leader and you have any people with you that you don't know well.

Somewhere I have the notes from a Mountain Medicine seminar that I took years ago. There is a standard list of household chemicals, prescription drugs, OTC drugs, recreational drugs, illegal drugs, etc. By each one, there is a list of the normal conditions where they might be applied. Then, there were the symptoms of overdose or mis-dosage.

The particular drug class was taught by a PhD in pharmacology who worked at San Francisco General Hospital, so he knew a lot about all sorts of drug stuff that is commonly abused. For the normal students in the class, it was all kind of scary, but the instructor was nonchalant about it.

So, if you are going to shoot up in the backcountry, take your app with you. Not.

–B.G.–

If you really want to take a reference along, *after* you've gotten an appropriate level of training, then there are some decent ones available for Kindle, including the NOLS Wilderness Medicine Guide and Medicine for the Outdoors.

I'd be at least mildly amazed if I ever actually used one of them in the wild, but given that their added weight is zero grams I've got 'em along.

Not sure exactly what I'm looking for. Yes, I am a veterinarian, Ken, so I do have more than the average person's training. However, there are some species differences-I don't generally tape ankles, my patients don't have collarbones and dislocated shoulders aren't common, etc. Also, the consequences of missing a head injury are bigger, and I can't ask my patients questions!

I definitely need a class. I live a long way from major metropolitan areas and my on-call schedule hasn't matched up with any wilderness first-aid class, which need to be multi day affairs. I have purchased a text and have read through it, but that's not the same as hands-on and drilling. Also, I hike with my boyfriend, who hasn't had any first aid since Boy Scouts. I guess mostly I was just disappointed in the recommendation for an app that really doesn't address the issue.