Status of Wilderness Medicine Education in the United Kingdom: A Survey-Based Research and Review of the Literature

IntroductionWilderness medicine specializes in delivering clinical care in austere environments, far from healthcare facilities, with limited resources. There is no standardized wilderness medicine training for medical students within the United Kingdom. The aim of this research was to identify what wilderness medicine training is being delivered to undergraduate medical students in the United Kingdom to guide future educational research.MethodA scoping review following a PRISMA-ScR protocol was undertaken in the Medline and Scopus databases. This was supported by a digital survey sent to all UK university medical schools wilderness medicine interest groups to identify wilderness medicine teaching both within the curriculum and extracurricularly.ResultsOf the initial 1186 articles identified, 23 met the inclusion criteria. Seven represented practices in UK universities, and 21 represented a teaching module delivered to undergraduate students. Nineteen of the articles (91%) described faculty-delivered modules; two peer-led modules were both from UK universities. Thirty-one UK based wilderness medicine interest groups members responded to the online survey representing 13 different UK universities. All had been involved with extracurricular peer-led wilderness medicine teaching compared with 10% who received curriculum-based faculty-led teaching.ConclusionMost UK wilderness medicine training is extracurricular and peer led. Current research into this field provides excellent examples of wilderness medicine within UK medical schools but no comparisons between the methodologies for outcomes or cost efficiency. This review recommends more structured investigation to determine the optimal introduction to wilderness medicine for undergraduate medical students.