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-19 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 inperson 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 79.5% of participants (128/161). participants rated the virtual experience positively. both fellows and faculty felt the virtual boot camp adequately taught wm topics (fellows [5(4-5)], faculty [5(5-5)], p <0.01). both felt the virtual experience was sufficient over an inperson boot camp (fellows [4(2.75-4)], faculty [4(4-5)], p <0.01). due to the ongoing covid-19 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.