Providing CPR with Base Medical
Base Medical and The American Red Cross
Base Medical and The American Red Cross have partnered so that instructors may add CPR/AED training in their wilderness medicine courses. Our partnership with American Red Cross allows Base Medical instructors to provide standardized, industry recognized, and high-quality CPR training in our wilderness medicine courses. This page provides guidelines and resources for Base Medical instructors on teaching American Red Cross curriculum, lesson planning, becoming a CPR instructor with the Red Cross, and much more!
CPR Program Overview
Base Medical now provides access to The American Red Cross Adult CPR and AED training on the same platform students use to access their online wilderness medicine lessons. Like Base Medical, this will also be a hybrid option for students to obtain certification.
When instructors register a wilderness medicine course with the CPR add-on, students will complete Red Cross curriculum on the Base Medical platform prior to practical training. The Base Medical Instructor delivers the hands-on portion of the CPR course during an in-person WFA or WFR course, or as a stand alone class. To learn more about the Base Medical program, see our program guidelines below.
The American Red Cross provides their own training, manual, guidelines, and resources for certified instructors. Once certified with American Red Cross, instructors will have access to all of this via the Red Cross Learning Center (RCLC) Portal. To log in to the RCLC portal, click below!
Wilderness Medicine Lesson Plans w/ CPR
The attached lesson plans mirror the WFA and WFR schedule templates found in the IRA. Instructors may adjust these schedules as need as long as they are teaching in accordance with the Wilderness Medicine Blended Learning Standards and The American Red Cross standards
How to become an American Red Cross CPR Instructor
The route of becoming an American Red Cross CPR instructor will depend on if you are already certified as a CPR instructor with another organization or not.
Existing CPR Instructors for Another Organization
Good News! Base Medical Instructors with an existing CPR Instructor certification may be qualified to take the FREE online instructor bridge program with the American Red Cross. Learn more here.
Base Med Instructors Who Want to become a CPR Instructor
Base Medical is currently training American Red Cross CPR Instructors and Instructor Trainers in the Seattle, Portland, and Albuquerque areas to train other Base Medical instructors as American Red Cross CPR instructors. Base Medical will coordinate CPR Instructor and Trainer classes in these areas throughout 2025. If you do not want to wait that long, you can sign up for an American Red Cross CPR Instructor course in your area. Learn more here.
Existing American Red Cross CPR Instructors
Easy! You are ready to go when it comes to offering a CPR course. Just ensure to let Base Medical know that your are certified with American Red Cross so that you can be added as a Base Medical affiliate on the Red Cross website. Also, depending on your teaching experience with the Red Cross, you may qualify to become a CPR Instructor Trainer for Base Medical. This will allow you to certify others in teaching CPR. Base Medical is looking for more Instructor Trainers. If you think you qualify, please email teal@base-medical.com.
CPR in the Wilderness Setting
Many hypothermic cardiac arrest victims have been successfully resuscitated many hours or days later with a wilderness-specific CPR approach as suggested by the Wilderness Medical Society in their updated hypothermic practice guidelines.
CPR should be initiated for hypothermic cardiac arrest victims without any other obvious causes of death. It is acceptable to deliver intermittent compression-only CPR to these individuals while waiting for help to arrive or during evacuation.
There have been numerous cases in which 5 minutes of compressions and then 5 minutes of evacuation for multiple hours have resulted in full recovery of the hypothermic victim. Many SAR teams and other wilderness EMS organizations now have intermittent CPR as a part of their protocol for a hypothermic cardiac arrest patient. Quality compressions and rate and evidence-based techniques are essential to patient outcome. Therefore an urban CPR class still needed to build foundational skills. This is why Base Medical has partnered with the American Red Cross.
The patient should still be placed in a 5-point hypowrap. However, it may be best to not actively rewarm the patient as the patient may require critical care beyond field capability if they are indeed warmed and resuscitated. CPR is buying the victim time while they are evacuated to the hospital.
