Congratulations and welcome to our newest wilderness first aid instructors! Twelve instructor students from five states (AZ, CO, FL, IL, TN) traveled to the Denver, Colorado area to attend Wilderness Medicine Outfitters’ (WMO) Instructor orientation course held on March 21-23, 2014.  The twelve-hour course, led by Carl Weil, WMO’s Director and Master Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine was supported by WMO medical advisor and Senior Instructor Marc McDonald, WEMT, WALS (both Fellows of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine), provided an introduction to WMO’s approach to teaching wilderness medicine classes (WFA, WFR, WEMT), and its policies and procedures to help ensure consistent delivery of high-quality wilderness courses. Students received a 200-page instructor’s manual containing guidelines and requirements on topics such as course planning, marketing, and administration, curriculum outlines for WFA and Wilderness First Responder courses, WMO Practice Guidelines, legal liability, professional insurance, and other topics.  Each instructor candidate was required to prepare and present two presentations on a WFA topic of their choice. The presentations were delivered on the third evening to a small group audience consisting of peers and one senior instructor. Afterwards, each person in the audience including the Senior Instructor provided positive feedback on the presentation’s content and the mechanics of delivery. Specific feedback included aspects of delivery such as speaking stance, posture, and movement, voice intonation and variability during delivery, effective use of visual aids and props, use of scenarios, and so on. The exercise reinforced those portions of the Instructor Manual addressing presentation guidelines and the importance of teamwork, positive and constructive feedback, and open communication among the instructors. This communications approach develops professional instructors and prepares them to delivery high-quality, credible wilderness first aid training. Several of the new instructors have started teaching with a senior as a mentor and others are soon to follow the same path. If you would like a WFA course in your area please email Carl@WildernessMedicine.com