Into the Woods: Wilderness Medicine Elective Gets Fourth-Year Students Outdoors
September 26, 2022 by
Janet Essman Franz
“Remember the view, and breathe,” Sarah Schlein, M.D., FACEP, advised her student, Nina Feinberg ’23, as Feinberg prepared to descend a steep rock face in Vermont’s west Bolton woods. Clutching the rope clipped to her waist harness, Feinberg took a deep breath and backed down the crag, with fellow medical students cheering her on. After a few hesitant steps, she looked around: “Okay, I’m fine, it’s really pretty.”
“Remember the view, and breathe,” Sarah Schlein, M.D., FACEP, advised her student, Nina Feinberg ’23, as Feinberg prepared to descend a steep rock face in Vermont’s west Bolton woods. Clutching the rope clipped to her waist harness, Feinberg took a deep breath and backed down the crag, with fellow medical students cheering her on. After a few hesitant steps, she looked around: “Okay, I’m fine, it’s really pretty.”
Rock climbing, rappelling, kayaking, hiking and camping are among the activities that fourth-year medical students participate in during a two-week elective course in Wilderness Medicine. The intensive curriculum takes students out of the hospital and into the woods, lakes, and mountains to learn and practice skills for rescuing people from drowning, diving accidents, altitude sickness, hypothermia, crush injuries, and suspension trauma.
We foster brilliant teachers, who educate talented students, who become the caring, knowledgeable physicians and scientists of tomorrow.
Voices of the College
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“Seeing the Chief of the Abenaki tribe in Vermont join us for a
free skin check and being in the room with the Abenaki community during their
drum circle brought me joy as I got involved in the Greater Burlington
community.”
— Claire Baptiste, Class of 2027
Read Baptiste's Blog Post