Customer Reviews

Outdoor Emergency Care: Comprehensive Prehospital Care for Nonurban Settings

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I want to state one thing first, OEC (Outdoor Emergency Care) was created for/by National Ski Patrol. The design of this care is to manage the injury and send to the next level care depending on an injury. It was made to go along with class room training. OEC is a First Responder/College level course.
I read one of the other reviews and I can tell that they bought the book to try to teach themselves by by reading it. It does cover a lot and is detailed, but I compare it to any other college class where there is assigned reading and lab work. With out one, the other is harder.
I highly recommend the OEC training for anyone that camps, hikes, skis, snowboards, bikes, rafting, or other outdoor activity.

Lots of flashy colors and photos but little or no structure to the content.

Adjoining chapters are structured differently and written with different "voices" so the book is difficult to read straight through. Many photos seem selected purely for shock value and contribute no substance to the topic.

Specific emergency care procedures are rarely set apart from description and assessment. In those rare cases where step by step emergency procedures are set apart with a subhead and in a separate paragraph, they appear as many as ten pages away from the description. Making this generally useless as a reference book.

The final insult is that at least a quarter of the entire book isn't indexed. They didn't index scenarios or appendices so the information in more than a quarter of the book can only be found by serendipity.

I don't think I've ever had a lower opinion of a book before. It is poorly organized, and can't even manage to be consistent in its material. Terms are used several chapters before they are explained, and sometimes not at all. The same tables are printed in a number of different places in the book, but contain conflicting data. It is painfully obvious that it went to print without a single person bothering to proof read it. Unfortunately, it is the required text for a course I am taking. Sometimes we joke about how bad it is, but mainly we are frustrated.

Here's the story guys and gals. This book was and is a comprehensive collection of emergent care for outdoor adventures. It is easy to follow and has the most important information needed for care. However, you are very possibly getting this for OEC certification and I gotta tell you, the new National Ski Patrol test is very new edition oriented so outdoor emergency trainees beware!

Personally, I think it may be possible they took the "basic" out of "basic care" for the new edition and went farther than needed for the scope of the practice but bottom line is: If you are going for your OEC cert., get the new edition.

If you want something for the house or camp that any family member can follow and provide knowledgeable care, these older editions are what you want. They are inexpensive now that the new edition is out and the investment may just save someone oneday!

This book isn't MEANT to be read straight through. It's meant to be coupled with an OEC course with instructors. With that in mind, this text mas an integral part to the success of many OEC students. I suggest you take an OEC course through your local college or through a mountain ski patrol. You'll have a better understanding and appreciation for the text.

The text is written very well, however, the multiple choice questions in the student workbook are written poorly.