Medical Advance Party Course - Spring 2025

MEDICAL ADVANCE PARTY (MAP) 8-WEEK COURSE

This interactive remote-access course will teach you how to plan, manage and run health-care clinics in any type of environment. Over the course of eight weeks, you will learn medical infrastructure in the field, team skills and how to navigate communication and security issues when functioning as advance party for medical outreach groups.

The MAP course will also teach you how to keep resources and staff safe in post-disaster, emergency or remote underserved environments while setting up infrastructure to deliver integrative aid, assistance and health-care.

The Medical Advanced Party (MAP) course will walk students through critically important steps to set up medical clinics that can work well regardless of situation or location.

For instance: Do you understand how to plan for and supply your medical team with nutrition and clean water? Do you know how to make sure that hygiene, sanitation and water are available and abundant for the clinic? Do you have basic camping and off-grid living skills? Will your team have a secure place to store gear, eat, rest and take care of themselves? Does it matter what kind of radio and communication system(s) you select? What are some of the most pressing security issues that may present themselves and how do you watch for them and respond if necessary?

Students will learn to build a strong team interaction while establishing safe team settings and mitigating potential threats to clinic security, while also providing an advance infrastructure to allow medical teams to provide the best quality health-care to communities in need.

Each week, the course will introduce you to these topics and more:

• Community engagement and communication skills

• Translating, understanding multi-lingual and multi-cultural situations and overcoming language and cultural barriers

• Mapping, orienteering and planning medical operations in urban and remote areas

• Basic team planning and understanding of food, hygiene, water, communications and shelter

• Understanding the importance and concepts of security for yourself and your medical team

• Physical and mental fitness training, stress management and team cohesiveness

• Medical team advance party roles and responsibilities

• Planning, building and supervising a clinic in the field

• Surviving and thriving in post-disaster and austere conditions

• Planning, managing and using a radio system and other communication methods

This is a very interactive course. Materials will be sent out to help students master physical and infrastructure skills for successfully running a medical or outreach clinic. In addition to the lectures and demonstrations, students will perform tasks as homework as well as use an integrated video tool to demonstrate their skills in certain topics. Further mastery will follow as the skills are used at the Herbal Off-grid Medical Experience (HOME) and while participating in clinical opportunities. These tasks you will perform as part of the MAP course are as follows:

Task 1: Develop a framework to create and lead a team of healthcare providers & medics

Task 2: Establish and maintain communications, both physical and electronic

Task 3: Plan and move as a team. Establish contingency plans and rally points

Task 4: Recognize and respond to possible threats and issues in individual, team and community settings

Task 5: Pack your own bag with the aid of a basic packing list. Learn essential required gear for mission needs and camp hygiene

Task 6: Perform basic land navigation tasks and area familiarization using a topographical map

Task 7: Create and participate in a personal conditioning regimen

Task 8: Organize basic components required to establish an austere or post-disaster clinic & identify criteria used to prioritize the use of scarce clinic resources

Task 9: Basic camping skills: fire-starting, camp-cooking for an individual, poncho shelter, campsite selection

Task 10: Demonstrate proper and safe use of bladed camp tools (knife, saw, & hatchet) and then hone personal knife for use in primitive and improvised clinical environments

Task 11: Demonstrate rope/cordage skills

Task 12: Demonstrate focused and deliberate communication skills both to deliver information and to navigate cultural and linguistic barriers

Task 13: Using specified principles, gather and analyze information to accurately inform others (or yourself) regarding a topic of interest

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COURSE INFORMATION:

Dates: 8 week course begins on March 24th, 2025.

Live Class Schedule: TBA. All live classes will be recorded and made available for students to view and download.

This course is a requirement for the Austere Medicine program and a pre-requisite for the HOME on-site intensive.

Course materials will release every Monday, and 4 live sessions with instructors will be scheduled for the course, TBA.

International Shipping: There are additional costs involved with shipping course materials outside of the US. If you are located outside of the US, so we can help you with shipping arrangements. We offer shipping within Canada and Mexico only. (APO and AE addresses are not eligible.) International students are responsible for the expense of shipping their own course materials. If you are not eligible for international shipping services, please contact us for assistance with a materials list to source your materials locally.

TUITION INFORMATION:

Early Bird Tuition Available until February 15th, 2025: $235 (processing fees apply)

Check, Venmo, E-Invoice, Money Order Discount: $235 (No processing fees)

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Regular Tuition Available until March 24th: $260 (processing fees apply)

Check, Venmo, E-invoice, Money Order Discount: $260 (No processing fees)

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Late Tuition Available until April 7th: $285 after March 24th, 2023.

Please review our tuition policy: https://herbalmedics.academy/about-us/tuition-policies/

For information about paying with a check, Venmo, money order, or e-invoice, send us an email here:

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