The American Red Cross working with the BSA and other high adventure oriented youth organizations developed an advanced first aid program called Wilderness and Remote First Aid. The NBO Scout Training team offers WaRFA training in the Houston, Texas area. The target audience for Wilderness and Remote First Aid is Venture age teenagers and their leaders planning outings where professional medical response may not be immediately available. We use age-appropriate techniques to deliver this class to our target teenage audience. Scout leaders are welcome and should take this class along with their youth members. The American Red Cross Wilderness and Remote First Aid program conforms to the BSA Wilderness First Aid Curriculum and Doctrine of Understanding. WaRFA is the preferred course for Scouts and Scouters.

The American Red Cross WaRFA program meets the current training required for Scout groups planning treks to Philmont Scout Ranch. Philmont requires two participants, youth or adult, have current Wilderness First Aid training. The Philmont Scout Ranch, many Council and all BSA high adventure bases encourage ALL participants to have this training. Taking this class with the youth members of your planned trek is an excellent way to prepare for your adventure. The class provides lifelong skills designed to deal with a medical emergency when professional help may be hours or even days away. You'll learn skills that you may use to save the life of a Scout, a good friend, a family member or perhaps a total stranger. Adult leaders can be confident that their youth trained trek members will know how to help them in an emergency.

Wilderness and Remote First Aid is a hybrid course building on skills and knowledge offered in basic community level classes. The program introduces advanced skills presented in programs like American Red Cross Lifeguarding and First Responder level classes. The skills presented are more or less the same first aid skills taught in basic level classes with added instruction on how to improvise and adapt them to a delayed care environment. The knowledge presented will prepare you to help a victim when professional care may be a few hours to days away.

How to complete a scene size-up
How to recognize and handle immediate life threatening conditions
How to conduct an initial and ongoing victim assessment
How to care for potential head, neck and back injuries
How to move or transport a victim when necessary

You will learn to see emergencies through the eyes of a professional first responder.

The NBO Scout Training Team offers WaRFA classes at several wilderness venues across Texas area. The sixteen to twenty hour class offers instruction, presentations, videos, demonstrations, patient assessment practice on "real" victims, and realistic, multi-casualty scenarios. Our WaRFA alumni and our First Responder trained teenagers are our "victims". Multi-causality scenarios are the highlight of our class. They're a cross between a Scout First Aid Meet on steroids and a reenactment of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Participants apply the skills and knowledge taught throughout the class. The training patrols must work together as a team to solve the challenging scenarios.

The American Red Cross Wilderness and Remote First Aid class is open to mature teenagers, fourteen and older (or registered Venturers) and their adult leaders. Youth and adult participants should be comfortable with basic first aid skills. Current Adult CPR/AED certification conducted by a nationally recognized training organization is a prerequisite. We recommend current basic level First Aid certification too. The NBO Scout Training team offers basic level CPR/AED and First Aid classes designed for Scouts and Scouters several times a year. See our schedule page for available classes.

Basic level First Aid and Adult CPR/AED classes are also available from The American Red Cross including the new SIM-Learning program. See their national website for area class locations.

Wilderness and Remote First Aid
GSUSA Camp Pryor, March 22, 2015