Certifications: Wilderness First Responder, Advanced Wilderness First Aid, and part of the SIGMA 3 Survival Instructor Lvl 2 Certification.
Training Time: : 88 hrs for online herbal certification. 72 hrs for Wilderness First Responder. 160 Total Hrs. This time doesn’t include after-hours harvesting and making medicine on your own. The program is 90% online and 3 days onsite and in person.
Herbal Wisdom and Wilderness Resilience
Overview:
Introduction to Herbal Medicine for Beginners is a six-week, online learning experience designed to help you understand the most crucial and practical aspects of herbalism. Over six weeks, follow Sam Coffman through video classes to jump-start your knowledge in herbal medicine across the introductory topics of: Practical herbalism at home and in the clinic, Herbal first aid, Wildcrafting, Botany, Medicine making, Medicinal plant gardening, Materia Medica (25 herbs in detail) and understanding other related (but non-herbal) topics.
Instructor: Sam Coffman
Author of the “Herbal Medic, A green berets guide to emergency medical preparedness and natural first aid”. Sam has worked extensively with herbs since 1987 and formally as a clinical herbalist for over 15 years. He served in the US Army for 10 years of which 6 were as a US Special Forces Medic (aka Green Beret Medic, 18D). He is a registered herbalist (RH) with the American Herbalists Guild, a Wilderness EMT (WEMT), and a Wilderness First Responder instructor. Sam has BA in Linguistics and a Masters in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (MSAOM), and is currently (2023) working on obtaining his acupuncture license in New Mexico.
Introduction to Herbal Medicine for Beginners
(16 hrs, online):
Introduction to Herbal Medicine for Beginners is a six-week, online learning experience designed to help you understand the most crucial and practical aspects of herbalism. Over six weeks, follow Sam Coffman through video classes to jump-start your knowledge in herbal medicine across the introductory topics of: Practical herbalism at home and in the clinic, Herbal first aid, Wildcrafting, Botany, Medicine making, Medicinal plant gardening, Materia Medica (25 herbs in detail) and understanding other related (but non-herbal) topics.
Learn the essentials of first aid care while also introducing fundamental plant-medicine concepts that apply to austere or post-disaster environments. Herbal medicine offers extremely effective approaches to acute illnesses in post-disaster situations, offering relief to physical ailments while also supporting mental and body system health. **This module will include herbal Field materials students will use to demonstrate an understanding of preparations in remote environments.
Join us for this interactive course, jam-packed with information about venomous snakes, spiders, scorpions, bees, wasps, fire ants and more! Learn about the pathophysiology of different types of venom in the body, anaphylactic shock, mild to severe venom reactions, immediate first aid, red flags for orthodox care, how to deal with any worst-case scenario using herbal medicine if there is no higher care, and much more.
Anaphylaxis: orthodox and austere treatments (including botanical medicines)
Venomous snakes of North America: everything you should know
Bees, wasps, hornets — signs, symptoms and treatments
Field first aid for venomous spider bites, signs and symptoms
Field first aid and orthodox treatment for fire ant stings
Field first aid for North American jellyfish stings
Scorpion stings: from orthodox treatment to field first aid
Herbal Case studies
Herbal Materia Medica for venomous bites and stings
A ‘Must-Have’ list for your field first aid kit (including botanical medicines)
Infection & Wound Management
(12 hrs, online):
Post-injury wound management is one of the most important medical subjects you can learn, especially for disaster or austere medicine. Often times its infections after the wound, that end up becoming a bigger problem than the wound ever was itself. Small wounds can turn into critical life-threatening situations very quickly in certain environments. You absolutely must have a plan for treating wounds long-term and in this module, Sam will demonstrate and explain several vital concepts that range from herbal and basic first aid at home to wound and infection management in austere or post-disaster conditions.
Checking for neuro, circulatory and connective tissue damage
Identifying and working with hypovolemic and psychogenic shock
Wound closure techniques at home and in the field
Working with burns and blisters
Wound tunneling and packing wounds
The colors of a wound
Identifying and understanding infection
Biofilms and antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Working with rather than against inflammation
Restoring scar tissue
Making Your Own Herbal First Aid Kit
(12 hrs, online):
The Herbal Medic First Aid Kit Course will include eight hours of lectures, resources for supplies and materials, slideshows, and handouts. Students will also receive access to ‘The Top 25 Herbs for the End of the World’ pdf and the ‘Building Your Own Herbal First Aid Guide’ pdf for download.
In addition, students will be mailed two full-size glossy 11”x17” posters: “First Aid Kit Essentials” and “Herbs for Emergency First Aid”. One of these posters includes an organized and visual layout to help you understand what to pack in your first aid kit and how to organize it, whether you know nothing about first aid or you are a medical doctor. The other poster includes an organized structure that will help you pick the most essential herbs you need for your kit, with over 50 herbs spanning multiple healthcare issues from acute to chronic!
Car kits, work kits, go bags, and mini (everyday carry) kits
Necessary bandaging equipment from minor to life-threatening
Wound & burn management
Sharps from A to Z
Hydration, nutrition and recovery
Infection control for respiratory, UTI, Gut and Skin
Nervines/Adaptogens for anxiety and trauma
Immune-supportive herbs for medical emergencies
Venomous bites and stings
Salves and powders (which to use, when, and contraindications)
Working with herbs you probably have in your kitchen
Herbal Management for Acute Viral Infections
(12 hrs, online):
This 3-week course is filled with information, case studies and experience that will help you understand how to prepare for and deal with a wide variety of acute viral infections. There are many situations when dealing with viral infections where pharmaceutical medicine does not provide all (or sometimes even any) effective answers. Using a vast array of medicinal herbs we can grow and find in the wild, as well as order online and prepare ahead of time, we can both support our body’s intricate immune system and tissues as well as take advantage of the multitude of inhibitory effects that various herbs have on different types of viruses.
This course will cover:
Understand viral infections – made simple
Determining the correct herbs based on fluctuating symptoms
Mucosal & Immune support
Pandemics, disasters and herbs
Herbs specific to different virus families:
Coronavirus family (e.g., MERS, SARS, COVID-19)
Herpesvirus family (e.g., HSV1, HSV2, Shingles)
Norovirus and Rotavirus families (stomach flus
Orthomyxovirus family (respiratory influenzas)
Flavivirus family (Dengue, Zika, etc.)
Paramyxovirus family (measles, mumps, URI’s)
Rhinovirus family (common colds)
Hygiene, precautions, quarantines
Gardening & wildcrafting your own herbal “pharmacy”
Herbal home “anti-viral” first aid kits
SHTF Herbalism
(16 hrs, online):
The SHTF (Sh*t Hits the Fan)-Medicine series is a 32-hour introduction to medical self-sustainability in a world without clinics, doctors, emergency rooms, antibiotics, and pharmaceutical drugs. Our natural environment is filled with extremely powerful medicinal plants if you know how to use them. Learn basic post-disaster techniques that incorporate some of the most potent medicine from the outdoors. Medicine that anyone can use if they have the knowledge and skill to use it. Plant medicine which rivals pharmaceutical medicine in many cases, grows all around us and is available even after a disaster.
This is the first of a 3-phase training portion to become a wilderness first responder. All 3 components must be scheduled and passed in order to get your wilderness first responder certifications. Students will have 3 months of access online interactive platform that includes instructional lectures, videos, flashcards, and learning resources. You will have a finite window for certification for this portion of the module due to testing requirements. Students will receive an emergency first aid kit that contains trauma first aid gear to complete hands-on training in the ‘practical skills’ portion of the course, all done at home.
At the end of the course, there will be a final live skills review and test. Students can choose from scheduled times to show mastery of wilderness first aid skills in a private session with an instructor before taking the final certification exam online. Certification will be issued to students who show competency in those skills and pass the training exam with 80% or higher. Certification is issued through the Emergency Care & Safety Institute (ECSI) and lasts 2 years from the date of successful passing of the course.
Advanced Wilderness First Aid Certification
(24 hrs. Program, online)
Phase 2:
This course is phase 2 of the wilderness first responder certification program and will cover the following skills:
Advanced Secondary Survey
Infectious Disease Management
Medical Emergencies & Common Medications
Environmental Injuries II
Extrication, Carries and Improvised Stretchers
Knots and Lashings
Introduction to Radios and Communication
Introduction to Evacuation Planning & Documentation
Introduction to Mass Casualty Response
Bandaging, Splinting and Taping II
Advanced Wound Management in the Field
Building Med Kits
Clearing the Spine
Tourniquet Conversion
Wilderness First Responder Certification
(3 days, on-site in-person)
3rd phase, Final Certification
Refunds:
There will be no refunds for the program because once you get a login, all the materials are downloadable. The entire course, all videos, PDFs, and all materials can be downloaded for long-term use and printout. And there would be no way to reasonably provide refunds for a course with full access to the material like this.
What are the certifications good for? What are certifications good for? The wilderness first responder program can be used for resumes for outdoor jobs. The herbal knowledge can be used to start your own herbal business at home.
Items Needed for course: Good internet connection, webcam for testing phases
