Outdoor Emergency Care

Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) was first developed by the National Ski Patrol in the 1980s for certification in first aid, and other pre-hospital care and treatment for possible injuries in non-urban settings. Outdoor Emergency Care technicians provide care at ski resorts, wilderness settings, white-water excursions, mountain bike events, and in many other outdoor environments.

Basic emergency skills taught include using airway adjuncts, assisting patients with medications, splinting and bandaging, providing emergency care for environmental illnesses and injuries, using special equipment and techniques particular to non-urban rescuers, and managing prolonged transport.

The standard of training and actual procedures and requirements for OEC meet and exceed those of the first responders-Basic course and the curriculum contains many all of the skills identified in the US Department of Transportation (DOT) 1994 EMT-Basic National Standard Curriculum[1], although training is specific to needs in outdoor scenarios, such as self-reliance and individual skills. This instead of the EMT curriculum focusing on urban environments with immediate access to additional resources such as EMT partners and an ambulance. While the OEC curriculum includes a skill set and fund of knowledge that exceeds those of the Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) program, it does not include all the knowledge needed for an EMT program since it emphasizes caring for patients in the wilderness, with a focus on snow-sports pathology. Because of this, OEC technicians typically have a similar standards of training compared to EMT-Basic responders, albeit several different focuses of the training: with OEC devoting a larger portion of the curriculum to musculoskeletal injuries, splinting, bandaging, and environmental emergencies and devoting comparatively less time on patients with a medical based issue. OEC technicians are first responders, not definitive medical care, and have the knowledge to care for, transport, and treat patients, but not to diagnose them or provide terminal support or invasive therapies.

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