Wilderness first aid certification in the US

Wilderness first aid as an established medical discipline is a relatively new phenomenon compared to the more established field of prehospital emergency medicine. While instructional guidelines for curriculum for prehospital emergency medical care have been standardized by the U.S. federal government, there are no current federal regulations defining scopes of practice for varying levels of wilderness medicine.

Industry groups in the field of wilderness medicine have worked to create such standards. The Wilderness Medical Society published The WMS Practice Guidelines for Wilderness Emergency Care in 1987, and updated the document several times through 2006. WMS now publishes Practice Guidelines updates in its journal Wilderness & Environmental Medicine.

Minimum guidelines and scope of practice for Wilderness First Aid training were published in the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine in 2013. These guidelines and scope of practice were developed with input from NOLS Wilderness Medicine Institute, SOLO, Wilderness Medicine Training Center, Aerie, Wilderness Medicine Outfitters, Remote Medical International, Desert Mountain Medicine, and others.

A group consensus position paper on minimum guidelines and scope of practice for Wilderness First Responder (WFR) was published in 2016 by the Wilderness Medicine Education Collaborative. The collaborative is led by representatives of NOLS Wilderness Medicine, SOLO Wilderness Medicine, Wilderness Medicine Training Center International, Wilderness Medical Associates International, Aerie Backcountry Medicine, and Desert Mountain Medicine.