FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

• Desert Mountain Medicine (DMM) Course Cancelation. DMM reserves the right to cancel a course at any time. In this instance, we will contact all students and issue a full refund.
• Tuition & Student Registration. Full payment must be received to be considered a registered participant.*
• Student Cancelations. Cancelations must be properly communicated to the DMM office. The timing of the cancelation notification in reference to the course start date will determine whether tuition fees are: refunded, credited or forfeited. 

Start date for traditional courses = 1st day of classroom section. Start date for hybrid courses = 1st day of online course section.

Notification deadlines are as follows:

• Cancellation notification made more than 30 days before the course = Full refund, less $25 administration fee.
• Cancellation notification made within 30 days up to 48 hours before the course = Full credit, redeemable with DMM for up-to one year of the original course start date.
• Cancellations notification or no notification within 48 hours of course start = Forfeit of tuition payment.*

*Exceptions certainly exist. Please contact DMM with special inquiries.

No. Certifications from Desert Mountain Medicine do not constitute a license of any sort under any state’s law.

Three years (no grace period):

• WFR
• WRC
• WAFA
• W-Upgrade
• EM
• CPR (obtained from WFR, WRC, W-up, or EM courses)

Two years (no grace period):

• WFA
• CPR (obtained from WFA course)
• WAT

No! While many DMM students do work as field staff within the outdoor industry, outdoor industry employment is not a requirement for taking a wilderness medicine course. Our courses teach students not only life-saving medical treatments but also proactive prevention of common illnesses and injuries. These skills and knowledge make up the foundation of a confident and competent backcountry traveler, regardless of whether you’re using your certification in a professional or personal capacity. A wilderness medicine certification should be considered a part of the “10 Essentials” we all carry when in the backcountry.

Yes, you are eligible to register for a Desert Mountain Medicine (DMM) Wilderness First Refresher Course as long as your certification is still valid and that your WFR and WFR recertification courses were a minimum of 72 hours and 24 hours respectively. 

We will not accept WFR or WFR recertification education formats that are online only even if they contain several hours of one-on-one zoom instruction. Your current WFR certification must have had a minimum of 45-50 hours of in-person, scenario-based training and your WFR recertification education must have had a minimum of 16 hours of in-person, scenario based training. 

Upon successful completion of the DMM WFR Recertification Course (WRC) you will receive a DMM certification. Please contact us for details, or if your current certification is expired, or came from an online-only course format. 

Yes, your Desert Mountain Medicine (DMM) certifications will be recognized by all other schools. Therefore, earning a WFR from DMM makes you eligible to take WFR Recertification Course (WRC) with any school in the industry.

As a founding member of the Wilderness Medicine Education Collaborative (WMEC) DMM collaborates with several other institutions to write Scope of Practice (SOP) documents for various levels of wilderness medicine education. These SOP documents define and describe the unique roles, skill sets, and knowledge base that a person trained in a specific level of wilderness medicine course should be able to effectively perform.

If your WFR is expired, yet you are still inside your ‘grace period’, you are eligible to take a DMM WFR recertification course (WRC). Upon successful completion of the DMM WRC, you will be issued the following DMM certifications cards:

1. WFR Recertification (WRC) – Valid for 3 years (no grace period)
2. *Wilderness CPR – Valid for 3 years (no grace period)
3. Wilderness Anaphylaxis Training (WAT) – Valid for 2 years (no grace period)

*DMM’s Wilderness CPR completion card is based on the American Heart Association’s (AHA) – Healthcare Provider curriculum. DMM does not issue AHA CPR cards.

Your certifications are securely hosted on our server and can be accessed in your student account.

If you have taken a class with us before July 2020: 

1. Go to: www.old.desertmountainmedicine.com 
2. Select ‘LOGIN’ at the top/right
3. Follow the steps for a missing password, using your email address as your username

If you have taken a class after July 2020: 

1. Go to: www.desertmountainmedicine.com 
2. Select ‘LOGIN’ at the top/right
3. Follow steps for a missing password, using your email address as your username
4. Once you are in your student account click on the CERTIFICATIONS tab and download your cards.

Students who gain a certification from Desert Mountain Medicine (DMM) will have access to their certification cards on DMM’s website. Physical copies are not provided. 

To access your certifications, login to your student account:

1. go to: www.desertmountainmedicine.com 
2. select ‘LOGIN’ at the top/right (your login is your email address)
3. follow steps for a missing password, using your email address as your username

No. DMM reserves the absolute right to fail any student who does not, in the instructor’s sole opinion, demonstrate the standard understanding of the material, and the standard mastery of the techniques and skills necessary to be certified by DMM for the course the student is taking. No refund will be given by DMM in such a case.  

Wilderness medicine is a growing field with many different providers offering courses. Because there is no national certifying body governing the teaching and certification of WFR and other wilderness medicine classes, WFRs have historically varied in content and skills from provider to provider. To address the inconsistencies among providers, experienced wilderness medicine educators, including DMM’s Nadia Kimmel, came together to form the Wilderness Medicine Education Collaborative (WMEC). 

The WMEC collaborates and write scope of practice (SOP) documents for WFA, WAFA and WFR and work together to move the instruction and practice of wilderness medicine forward. The WMEC is not a governing or accrediting body for wilderness medicine, thus providers are not obligated to meet the SOP set forth by the WMEC. So, there can still be variation among course curricula and providers.

Yes! EMTs registered/licensed with the NREMT and/or the state of Colorado can receive CE hours for WFR (70 hours), WRC (18 hours), WEMS-Upgrade (40 hours), and WEMS-R (20 hours).

Please let your instructor know you are seeking CE hours on the first day of your course. They will provide you with a CE form confirming hours completed that you can submit to NREMT alongside your certification as verification of CE hours. If for whatever reason you did not receive the CE form, please reach out to [email protected].

While most states accept approved education from other states’ EMS offices, variations exist. It is the responsibility of the student in these instances to understand their state’s recertification education requirements.