Wilderness Medicine Boot Camp for Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellows Goes Virtual: From Uncertain Times Comes a Novel Approach to Traditional In-person Teaching

Wilderness medicine (WM) education is desired in Primary Care Sports Medicine fellowship training. Due to the COVID-۱۹ pandemic and travel restrictions, a virtual wilderness medicine boot camp was created to share a WM experience with learners across the United States. A previously led in-person WM boot camp was converted to lecture format and delivered through video conference. This covered information relevant to WM and the sports medicine certification exam. A post intervention survey was completed by ۷۹.۵% of participants (۱۲۸/۱۶۱). Participants rated the virtual experience positively. Both fellows and faculty felt the virtual boot camp adequately taught WM topics (fellows [۵(۴-۵)], faculty [۵(۵- ۵)], p <۰.۰۱). Both felt the virtual experience was sufficient over an in-person boot camp (fellows [۴(۲.۷۵-۴)], faculty [۴(۴-۵)], p <۰.۰۱). Due to the ongoing COVID-۱۹ pandemic, it is important to rethink teaching strategies to optimize the opportunities for learners. To date, this is the largest boot camp recorded in the literature. This was a safe and cost effective way to ensure that requirements for a WM experience were met. This virtual course could be adjusted to fit learning objectives of any specialty and tailored to accommodate any level of learning.