Immersive Pre-health Emergency and Wilderness Medicine Courses

Want to get outside your generic pre-med classes? Interested in emergency medicine, humanitarian relief work, wilderness medicine, or global health? Wish you could learn hands-on medical skills from med school faculty and physicians? This is the class for you! 

Undergraduate college students, graduates, and gap years students from any school are encouraged to join.

Program Benefits include:

Scroll down for detailed course information and to register for a course today.

Undergrad college students and grads from any college or university are encouraged to enroll! There is no prior experience required, and no prerequisites. A limited number of need-based full-ride scholarships available.

Undergraduate academic credit is now available for all students from all colleges and universities! Visit the More Information section below for details.

A limited number of need-based full-ride scholarships available. Please see the section below for more information.

 

Course Details
This week and half long program begins in hip, metro Denver and concludes at a camp stunningly set high in the iconic Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Program Includes:


It does not include breakfasts, dinners, and lodging for the first week. In addition to learning about emergency and wilderness medicine, students will meet with members of medical school admissions committees and get the inside scoop on the medical school application process. Students will also have time to get to know successful emergency room physicians (as well as PAs, paramedics, and nurses), and learn what it takes to excel in a medical career.

The course consists of three segments:

Whether you aren’t sure what kind of medicine interests you, or you already have an interest in disaster medicine, global health, rural medicine, humanitarian relief efforts, or straight up wilderness medicine, you’ll enjoy learning at your own pace about a whole new world of medicine. Learn about subjects such as patient assessment, trauma and shock, lightning, hypothermia, and much, much more. The dozen plus modules, covering about 24 hours of study, include state of the art content, case studies, interactive questionnaires, video links, and a quiz.

Explore a state of the art Trauma 1 hospital. Learn in lectures from experts in emergency medicine, international humanitarian relief, wilderness medicine and disaster response works. Develop hands-on skills in med school labs covering CPR, cardiac dissection, suturing, splinting, and ultrasound. Gain a competitive edge by getting the inside scoop in admissions with talks and workshops from an admissions director, faculty admissions committee members, and current med students and residents who share their journeys and stories of success. Experience a bit of the fascinating city of Denver.

Focus on leadership and teamwork as you participate in authentic, scenario-based learning designed to reinforce the skills and knowledge necessary to prevent, assess, and treat a variety of austere medicine challenges and emergencies. Enjoy optional adventure activities including rock climbing, canoeing or kayaking, hiking, snow shoeing, or camping (depending on season) or just relax and enjoy s’mores around a campfire and sunsets over the Continental Divide.

Please note: The January 2022 class will not include a camping portion. 

With consideration for the rapidly changing circumstances around COVID-19, we understand the need for parents and students to feel comfortable and safe. Anschutz Medical Campus requires masks on students at all times on students, and we will enforce this across the board. Additionally, we will require proof of COVID-19 vaccination for every participant.

If anything changes, such as local shut-downs or occupancy changes on campus, we are prepare to fully refund all students up to the start of class.

Want to learn more?
Join our CU Pre-Med Colorado Facebook group to see what current and past students are up to! Check out our CU Pre-Med Colorado Flickr Photo Gallery! Scroll down to see frequently asked questions or to reach out to us with a question of your own.

Emergency Medicine | Wilderness & Climate Medicine: ATOC 4500
Students can now earn 3 hours of undergraduate academic credit for participating in our courses. Credit will be offered through the University of Colorado – Boulder; however, students from any college or university are eligible to earn credit. You do NOT need to be a University of Colorado student to earn credit for this course. If you register to earn credit for this course you will be required to produce a short research or literature review paper.

Please be aware that you do NOT automatically get credit by simply enrolling in our courses. Course credit is NOT covered in the cost of tuition for this course. You MUST register through the University of Colorado – Boulder registration system and pay them directly for your credit hours.

Cost:

The cost for 3 credit hours through the University of Colorado – Boulder for this course is $1221. This cost is the same for both in state and out of state students, as well as degree seeking and non-degree seeking students. You must first register for the course through our website. Once you have registered with us, you can proceed with registering for academic credit through the University of Colorado – Boulder. Please be aware that you will need to reach out to us to get a one time registration code– to obtain this code, please email Professor Karnauskas (ATOC) at kristopher.karnauskas@colorado.edu.

If you are a University of Colorado – Boulder student, please scroll down to the “Academic Credit for University of Colorado – Boulder Students” section below for instructions on how to enroll.

If you are a non- University of Colorado – Boulder student (i.e a non-degree seeking student), please scroll down to the “Academic Credit for Non-Degree Seeking Students (Non-University of Colorado – Boulder Students)” section below for instructions on how to enroll.

***Please note that University of Colorado – Denver students and University of Colorado – Colorado Springs students are classified as non-degree seeking students***

For any questions regarding the academic credit registration process or for any questions regarding how this credit will be reflected in your transcript, please contact Professor Kristopher Karnauskas kristopher.karnauskas@colorado.edu. All other course inquiries should go to Meagan.Rivers@cuanschutz.edu.

For University of Colorado – Boulder students:

Step 1: Log into your MyCUInfo account using your campus credentials

Step 2: Click “Register for Classes” –> you will then be prompted to complete the preregistration items for emergency contact, local address, and tuition and fee agreement. Once those have been completed, you can continue on.

Step 3: Select the term from the list appearing on the select term page, then click “continue.” For the August and May-June sessions, you will select “summer term.” For the January session, the term has not yet been assigned, but we will update this section as soon as we know the appropriate term.

Step 4: Once you click “continue” in step 3, the “select classes to add” page will appear. You can either use the class search function (it will default to this when the page first appears), or you can use the Subject/Catalog number search. The course number is ATOC 4500-571.

Step 5: A list of courses will appear once completing step 4. Once you’ve located ATOC 4500-571, click the small green button to the left of the course number. This will expand the course details, and give you access to the “select” button for this course.

Step 6: Once you complete step 5, the “Class Preferences” page will appear. At this point, you will be prompted to enter a permissions number. The permissions number is unique to each student. You must contact us to obtain this number. To do so, please email Kristopher Karnauskas at Kristopher.karnauskas@colorado.edu. Once you have the number, you will enter it in the “Permission Nbr” box, then click “Next.”

By clicking “Next,” the course will be put in your shopping cart. A message will pop up on your screen in a rectangular green box that says “ATOC 4500-571 has been added to your shopping cart.

At this point, you can either choose to move the class from your shopping cart to “Enrolled” status. To do this, you would need to look under the Summer 2017 UC Boulder Shopping Cart area (or the shopping cart for the term for the respective session into which you are enrolling). In your shopping cart, you must select the class by checking the box under “Select” and clicking “Proceed to Step 2 of 4” for enrollment.

For questions regarding the academic credit registration process through the University of Colorado – Boulder registration system, please contact Kristopher.karnauskas@colorado.edu

For Non-University of Colorado – Boulder Students (i.e Non-Degree Seeking Students):

If you are NOT a student at the University of Colorado (i.e. Non-degree seeking students), you must first fill out an application using the following link:

http://ce.colorado.edu/resources/topics/enrollment-new-students/

***Please note that all students who fill out the application will be accepted. You do not need to be concerned about getting “rejected.” The application is simply a way to register you in the University of Colorado – Boulder system as a non-degree seeking student, and to provide you with access to the system to allow you to register for courses.***

Once submitted, you will receive a student ID number and instructions on how to create an IdentiKey and login to MyCUInfo to register. Once this is complete, you can follow steps 1 through 6 below.

Step 1: Log into your MyCUInfo account using your campus credentials

Step 2: Click “Register for Classes” –> you will then be prompted to complete the preregistration items for emergency contact, local address, and tuition and fee agreement. Once those have been completed, you can continue on.

Step 3: Select the term from the list appearing on the select term page, then click “continue.” For the August and May-June sessions, you will select “summer term.” For the January session, the term has not yet been assigned, but we will update this section as soon as we know the appropriate term.

Step 4: Once you click “continue” in step 3, the “select classes to add” page will appear. You can either use the class search function (it will default to this when the page first appears), or you can use the Subject/Catalog number search. The course number is ATOC 4500-571.

Step 5: A list of courses will appear once completing step 4. Once you’ve located ATOC 4500-571, click the small green button to the left of the course number. This will expand the course details, and give you access to the “select” button for this course.

Step 6: Once you complete step 5, the “Class Preferences” page will appear. At this point, you will be prompted to enter a permissions number. The permissions number is unique to each student. You must contact us to obtain this number. To do so, please email Kristopher Karnauskas  at Kristopher.karnauskas@colorado.edu. Once you have the number, you will enter it in the “Permission Nbr” box, then click “Next.”

By clicking “Next,” the course will be put in your shopping cart. A message will pop up on your screen in a rectangular green box that says “ATOC 4500-571 has been added to your shopping cart.

At this point, you can either choose to move the class from your shopping cart to “Enrolled” status. To do this, you would need to look under the Summer 2017 UC Boulder Shopping Cart area (or the shopping cart for the term for the respective session into which you are enrolling). In your shopping cart, you must select the class by checking the box under “Select” and clicking “Proceed to Step 2 of 4” for enrollment.

For questions or concerns regarding the University of Colorado – Boulder academic credit enrollment process, please contact Professor Karnauskas by emailing Kristopher.karnauskas@colorado.edu.

If you are enrolled in this class for academic you will be required to produce a short research project or literature review paper. Please see below expectations and deadlines for the assignment.

Research Papers – 3-5 pages, with full bibliography, APA style
PowerPoint Presentation – 20- 40 illustrated slides, with separate bibliography

Deadline to register (day 5 of the class)

Paper or Project Due and Grades Posted
– January Class – January 31 – Grades posted by February 15
– May- June Class – June 30
– August Class – August 31

For our summer classes grades will be submitted to UC Boulder by August 31 and will be posted in September.

Students who successfully complete our Colorado Pre-Med/Pre-Health course have the opportunity to earn a Wilderness First Responder certificate for 72 completed hours.

Additionally, students who have completed their EMT certification are eligible for a W-EMT bridge certificate.

Students who already have Wilderness First Responder certification from the last two years are eligible for a 16 hour recertification of their Wilderness First Responder. We are able to offer this to some students who take one of our Wilderness First Aid classes as well. Please contact us directly for more infomration.

Below is a tentative schedule for the upcoming January 2022 class. Subject to change — schedule will not be finalized until the week of the class.

January 2022 Tentative Schedule

Please note, due to the rapidly changing landscape of our world during the COVID-19 pandemic, our refund policy has temporarily changed. If we need to cancel a course due to local policies, you will receive a full refund. If you need to drop the course due to a COVID-19 diagnosis, you will receive a refund. Please ask Meagan.Rivers@cuanschutz.edu for other circumstances.

You have the option to register and reserve a spot in the class with a $500 USD payment, and payment of the full balance is due 30 days before the start of the course. If payment is not received 30 days prior to the start of class, you will be dropped from the course. If you register for a class fewer than 30 days prior to its start date, you are expected to pay in full on the day of registration. If you have any questions or concerns please contact course coordinator, Meagan Rivers at Meagan.Rivers@CUAnschutz.edu.

The University of Colorado reserves the right to make international cancellations up to 6 weeks and domestic cancellations up to 4 weeks prior to the course start date, in which case a full refund will be provided. The University of Colorado will not be held liable for any travel expenses or any other loss of funds the participants may incur due to the cancellation of the course. Trip cancellation insurance is strongly recommended.

Refunds:
Refunds of FULL PAYMENTS, minus a 15% administrative fee, will be granted 60 days or more prior to start of the program.
Between 30 and 59 days prior to the start of the program, a 50% refund of the full payment will be granted.
No refunds will be granted for cancellations made 29 days or fewer prior to the start of the program. Please note that partial payments and deposits are not eligible for refunds.

Payment Deadline:
Full payment is expected 30 days prior to the start of the course. Lack of full payment within 30 days of course’s start date will result in being dropped from the course without refund.

Student Code of Conduct
Students will be required to read, sign, and follow a Code of Conduct that includes both rights and responsibilities. The code will describe learning and especially behavioral expectations, which will be similar to codes expected at most higher education institutions. The code will also describe consequences if there is failure to abide by the rules, which could include immediate suspension from the program, in which case the student will be responsible for leaving the class and property, with no refund provided.

Voluntary, involuntary, or medical separation
Should a student choose to leave the class early, be asked to leave the program early (see “Code of Conduct” below), or need to leave due to medical issues, s/he will be responsible for her/his own travel home and for any associated costs.

Rights and Responsibilities: Student Code of Conduct
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Wilderness & Emergency Medicine Program

Students in the University of Colorado School of Medicine Wilderness program are members of the University community. As such, students are expected to uphold University standards, which include abiding by international, state, civil, and criminal laws and all University laws, policies and standards of conduct. These standards assist in promoting a safe and welcoming community; therefore all students and participants must uphold and abide by them.

The University strives to make the learning community a place of study, work, recreation, and residence where people are treated, and treat one another, with respect and courtesy. The University views the Student Conduct Process as a learning experience that can result in growth and personal understanding of one’s responsibilities and privileges within both the University community and the greater community. Students who violate these standards may be subject to the actions described in the University’s Student Code of Conduct. These procedures are designed to provide a welcoming learning community and fairness to all who are involved in the process.

Philosophy of Student Conduct: We strive to learn from one another in an educational environment that holds mutual respect for individuals and self-responsibility for behaviors community in high regard. Students who engage in behavior that conflicts with established standards, laws, policies, and guidelines may be dismissed from the program. Every member of the student community must assume responsibility for becoming educated about the various University standards, policies, and guidelines.

Diversity Statement: We are committed to a campus community where diversity is appreciated and valued, and where all individuals are treated fairly and with respect. We encourage curiosity, open communication, and continuous learning as ways to create a socially just environment. We respect the right for individuals to disagree with ideas and philosophies different from their own. However, we do not permit any form of behavior that places anyone in dangerous, discriminatory, or harassing environments. It is against the basic nature of this community for anyone to demean or discriminate against another human being.

Creating a Safe Learning Environment: We strive to provide a safe and welcoming learning environment and community. Such a caring, educational community does not tolerate physical or psychological threats, abuse, hazing, harassment, intimidation, or violence directed against a person, sexual or otherwise. In addition, students engaging in such behavior are subject to the University conduct processes.

Alcohol and Drugs: Students in a University of Colorado School of Medicine global education program must abide by host country laws and local institutional regulations with respect to alcohol and drugs. Unless permitted by host country law and local institutional regulations, participants will not possess, consume, furnish, or distribute any alcoholic beverages. The University of Colorado School of Medicine has a zero-tolerance policy with respect to the possession, use, manufacture, production, sale, exchange, or distribution of illegal drugs. Students are responsible for knowing and obeying the laws of the host country as well as all local institutional regulations, regarding alcohol and other drugs. Violations of law or policy may result in immediate dismissal from the program.

University Policies: Students are required to abide by University of Colorado School of Medicine/Anschutz Medical Campus policies, including CU Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus Code of Conduct, while enrolled in the program. For the Code of Conduct please see http://www.ucdenver.edu/life/services/standards/Documents/CUDenver-CodeofConduct.pdf

Host Country Customs: Students are responsible for abiding by the laws and customs of the host country, community, institution and program. In addition they are responsible for being sensitive to the social norms of the host culture. Students are also subjected to the disciplinary codes and processes of the host institution.

Dismissal: If a student seriously disrupts the group learning process, or if student’s behavior gives the faculty or program director reasonable cause to believe that continued presence in the program poses a danger to the health or safety of persons or property, or impedes, disrupts or obstructs the program in any way, the student will face immediate dismissal. Alcohol, drug, or weapons-related violations, harassment, or assault are so seriously problematic that dismissal is highly likely. Before a student is removed from the program, she or he will have an opportunity to explain her or his conduct to the faculty or program director(s). A decision of dismissal from the program would be final, immediate, and no refund would be made. Transportation and other expenses related to the student’s return home country would be at the student’s own expense.

Health: Students are responsible for their own health maintenance during the program. In the event of serious illness, accident or emergency, students are responsible for informing an appropriate program official and for granting permission to authorize emergency medical treatment so that assistance may be secured and so that designated emergency contact(s) may be notified. Students authorize U.S. Embassies and Consulates to release information concerning their welfare and whereabouts to the University of Colorado.

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