🏔️ GWEMS Intro Weekend: Zero to Hero
Ready to take your medical skills out of the classroom?
Join GWEMS for our incredibly popular annual Intro Weekend — the first residential event of the year and the perfect opportunity to discover wilderness medicine, develop practical skills, and meet fellow members.
📍 Glen Nevis Youth Hostel, at the foot of Ben Nevis
Whether you're completely new to wilderness medicine or already a clinical-stage healthcare student, this weekend is designed to take you from zero to hero. You'll learn and develop essential skills through hands-on teaching, practical workshops and realistic scenarios, with groups tailored to your experience.
🩺 What will you learn?
Across the weekend, you'll get hands-on experience with:
A–E assessment and management
Catastrophic haemorrhage control
Extrication and rescue techniques
Wilderness medicine fundamentals
Practical workshops led by experts in their fields
We've previously welcomed international search-and-rescue team members, pre-hospital physicians, mountain rescue personnel and white-water rescue specialists, giving you the chance to learn from people with real-world experience in challenging environments.
🌙 Saturday Night: Search & Rescue Simulation
As night falls, the real fun begins.
Put your new skills to the test in our iconic nighttime search-and-rescue simulation. Working as a team, you'll head into the darkness of the Scottish Highlands to find, assess and treat simulated casualties.
It's immersive, challenging and unlike anything you're likely to experience at university.
🚨 Sunday: Mass-Casualty Simulation
On Sunday, you'll tackle a major incident scenario.
Take your pick: get your acting boots on and become a casualty in full moulage and makeup, or work under the guidance of experienced participants to triage, treat and evacuate multiple casualties from a simulated major incident.
🏕️ More than just a weekend
This is your chance to build practical skills, challenge yourself, experience wilderness medicine first-hand and meet other students who share an interest in emergency and expedition medicine.
Whether you're starting from scratch or already have clinical experience, GWEMS Intro Weekend is designed to take you from zero to hero.
Come for the medicine. Stay for the adventure. 🏔️
🎟️ Tickets: Keep an eye on our Instagram for ticket release announcements and further information about the weekend. Tickets are expected to be popular, so make sure you’re following us so you don’t miss out!
This event is supported by grant funding from the Students’ Representative Council, which aims to support and elevate student-led initiatives that create more inclusive, accessible, and engaging opportunities for the wider student community.
Clinicians and helpers contact the committee directly for volunteer tickets.