The three Health books on this shelf occupy different positions in the same landscape. Medicine for the Outdoors is the comprehensive reference for anyone who wants depth — written by a physician, covering virtually every clinical scenario. The Survival Medicine Handbook is written for the household when professional care genuinely isn’t coming. NOLS Wilderness Medicine occupies the middle: it’s the guide for someone who needs to make competent decisions in the field — how to assess a patient, what to treat immediately, what to stabilize and monitor, and when and how to arrange evacuation.
That middle position is exactly what most prepared households actually need. A serious injury or medical emergency rarely happens somewhere that immediate 911 response is guaranteed. Knowing how to do a proper patient assessment, manage a spinal injury correctly, recognize shock, treat environmental emergencies (heat, cold, altitude, water), and communicate clearly with incoming EMS is practical preparedness — not wilderness recreation. Tod Schimelpfenig has been NOLS’s wilderness medicine curriculum director since 1973. This book is the official course textbook for NOLS and the Wilderness Medicine Institute. It is not a supplement to their training; it is the training.
The 7th edition (July 2021, Stackpole Books/Simon & Schuster) covers all the fundamentals plus chapters on judgment and decision-making under pressure, mental health in emergencies, and the legal framework for lay responders. 392 pages, updated to current medical recommendations throughout.
