FAQs

NOLS Wilderness Medicine works on a sponsorship model. They have sponsors throughout the country that they partner with to host courses and share their dynamic, world class curriculum, and expert instruction. Since 2005, Ready SF has sponsored over 500 NOLS Wilderness Medicine courses mainly in The San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Alaska, Montana and Bhutan. During those courses we have educated over 11,000 students. Ready SF is one of NOLS’ largest sponsors in the country. Ready SF partners with NOLS for many reasons. Our Founder, David Yacubian, has been a NOLS instructor since 2000 and has taught over 400 NOLS Wilderness Medicine courses on 3 different continents and all over the United States. We believe NOLS offers the best instruction, the most up to date curriculum, and continues to provide the best wilderness medicine education available.

We know you have a choice in your Wilderness Medicine classes. We hope you can find value in NOLS and what sets us apart from other providers. There are less expensive, older, and newer providers worldwide. But age, discounts, and savings do not always produce a quality product. NOLS focuses on excellence through its instructors, curriculum, and partnerships.

All NOLS courses are taught by NOLS Wilderness Medicine Staff, hired and trained by NOLS and under the direct supervision of NOLS Wilderness Medicine. NOLS does not allow other providers, organizations, outfitters, or companies to teach the NOLS Curriculum. NOLS instructors are expert educators with years of medical and wilderness leadership experience. They are, first and foremost, intentional educators. With backgrounds ranging from veterans of the U.S. Navy to National Park Service Rangers, outdoor educators, flight nurses, and more, they bring real and deep experiences to teaching the recognition, treatment, and prevention of wilderness emergencies.

NOLS teaches evidence-informed medicine that is field-tested on our own NOLS field courses with expert oversight. The wilderness medicine NOLS teaches is chosen carefully and is reviewed by their Medical Advisory Panel to be accurate, relevant, and practical. NOLS reviews accident data and the experience of outdoor programs and search and rescue operations to help prepare students to respond to the most likely incidents that happen in the wilderness. Additionally, NOLS performs internal retention studies to be most effective. NOLS is not only teaching relevant and current medicine, but medicine that you can remember and use. This medicine is not just the outlook or viewpoint of one person, organization, outfitter, or region.

First Aid, CPR/AED + Epinephrine certifications are all valid for 2 years.

We are a CA EMSA approved provider for epinephrine training

While we can train for pediatric first aid, we are NOT approved to provide CA EMSA pediatric first aid sticker

We customize our training schedule to meet your needs. We deliver our training programs on site at your business, organization and school.

When we provide an in-person training, depending on the content being delivered, our trainings last between 1.5 to 5.5 hours.

We are always looking for knowledgeable, people oriented instructors to add to our team. Just submit a ‘contact us’ form and we’ll be in touch.