Wilderness Medicine Didactics and Retreat Can Improve Intern Wellness, Team Building, and Knowledge

Emergency medicine (EM) programs emphasize psychological, emotional, and physical well-being among trainees. Our institution has iteratively refined a wilderness medicine (WM) orientation over the past decade to move beyond classroom didactics and introduce interns to regional outdoor recreational resources while promoting wellness, team building, and experiential learning. The aim of this study was to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of the course for two intern cohorts (2024–2025).

The orientation included 10 hours of WM lectures from the Wilderness Life Support for Medical Professionals curriculum and a 3-day retreat at a mountain research facility. The retreat provided dorm rooms, hiking, skills stations, problem-solving field simulations as team-based activities. Consented interns completed pre-/post-course questionnaires containing eight 5-point Likert statements and 16 knowledge questions. Outcomes included changes in wellness perceptions and the improvement in the proportion of correct responses. Analyses used two-sample tests of proportions and Pearson’s chi-square analysis.

Participants: 23 interns, 30% female, 65% with no prior WM experience, 70% aged 25–30. Statistically significant improvement was seen in 3 areas of team building/bonding: increased connectedness to fellow interns (65% felt connected pre-course, 100% after (P=0.008)), increased camaraderie (70% pre-course, 100% after (P=0.016)), and decreased anxiety about getting along with one another (31% anxious pre-course, 4% after (P=0.006)). Remaining five items showed high pre-course positivity (83%–96%), leaving little room for improvement. All 16 knowledge questions/scenarios improved; 7 statistically significant. Two mnemonic-based items demonstrated the largest gains (P<0.001 for both); 5 questions showed modest but statistically significant improvement, 22-39%. Remaining 9 questions improved 4-17%, not statistically significant.

An iteratively refined WM orientation and retreat improved early intern wellness, strengthened class cohesion, and enhanced WM knowledge through immersive, team-based application of EM-relevant skills. Although from a single institution, this multi-cohort experience suggests that similar curricula can be adopted by other EM programs to support bonding, wellness, and program culture introduction.