Remote Locations First Aid Course
Remote Locations First Aid Course for media, NGOs, and production teams working off the grid
Remote Locations First Aid
If your team works in remote, rural, offshore, or high-risk outdoor environments, standard workplace first aid isn’t enough. Our Remote Locations First Aid training is a comprehensive 3-day course designed to equip your team with the essential skills to respond confidently to emergencies when professional help is delayed or inaccessible.
Whether you work in forestry, utilities, conservation, exploration, offshore wind, or humanitarian aid – this course prepares your team to handle real emergencies in the environments where you operate
Be prepared when help is hours away
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Building upon our Outdoor First Aid Course, this training course provides a deeper, scenario-driven learning experience focused on extended casualty care, environmental risks, and the unique medical challenges faced by teams working in isolated, resource-scarce, or disaster-affected settings.
From production crews capturing documentaries in remote regions to journalists reporting in post-conflict zones, we equip your team with the skills, confidence, and foresight to manage emergencies until help arrives.
We bring over 15 years of experience delivering high-quality, practical first aid training in Devon, across the Southwest, and throughout the UK.
We work with broadcasters, NGO field teams, and production companies of all sizes. Whether you’re planning a documentary in the Arctic or deploying teams to earthquake-hit regions, we can help prepare your staff with bespoke, professional, and relevant training.
To discuss group bookings, course customisation, or delivery overseas, get in touch today.
Who is this Remote Locations First Aid course for?
This course is ideal for professionals who operate away from immediate emergency support. This includes:
Journalists, field producers, and camera crews
NGOs and humanitarian aid workers
Photographers and documentarians working in the field
Researchers and academics in remote study locations
Adventure tourism teams and travel safety officers
Fixers and support crews working in post-disaster or hostile areas
Whether you’re covering civil unrest, entering a flood zone, or spending weeks in a rainforest with limited comms, this course has been designed to reflect the realities of your work.
What You'll Learn on the Remote Locations First Aid Course
Across three full days, participants will learn and practise:
Prolonged Casualty Care in Remote Environments
How to manage and monitor a casualty over extended periods with limited resources. This includes wound care, bleeding control, managing infections, and maintaining airway, breathing, and circulation when evacuation is delayed.
Managing Environmental Risks and Remote Illnesses
We explore the impact of heat, cold, humidity, altitude, waterborne disease, animal bites, and environmental trauma. You’ll learn how to assess risk, protect your team, and treat related injuries and illnesses.
Remote Evacuation and Casualty Movement
Gain hands-on experience in improvised evacuation techniques and stretcher use. Learn how to assess routes, plan for extraction, and reduce risk when moving a casualty to a safer location.
Emergency Communication Without Signal
What happens when your phone doesn’t work? We’ll look at satellite phones, GPS trackers, radio protocols, and emergency comms plans—so you can call for help and relay vital information effectively.
Travel Health and Remote Pre-Deployment Planning
Understand the importance of pre-trip health checks, immunisations, medications, and personal risk assessments. We’ll cover what should be in your medical kit and how to adapt it for the location you’re heading to.
Team Safety, Fatigue and Mental Resilience
Operating in remote and often high-stress environments takes its toll. We focus on managing mental and physical fatigue, peer support, and decision-making under pressure—keeping your team functional and safe.
Scenario-Based Remote Locations First Aid Simulations
Throughout the course, you’ll engage in practical, high-pressure exercises reflecting the types of environments you may be deployed to. These simulate real incidents, such as trauma during filming, sudden illness in the field, or multi-casualty events in remote regions.
Realistic training for Remote and High-Risk Environments
It’s becoming increasingly common for media and NGO teams to operate in areas affected by disaster, civil unrest, or environmental extremes. Earthquakes, floods, and conflict zones present a complex mix of medical, logistical, and ethical challenges. Beyond the desire to tell the human story, there’s a critical need to ensure your team is safe, self-sufficient, and well prepared.
This course goes beyond standard first aid. It’s tailored to the operational reality of working in these environments when you might be the only help your colleague has for hours, or longer. It also provides reassurance to employers, editors, and organisations that their people are trained to respond calmly, capably, and professionally in a crisis.
Certification and course outcomes
Certification meets training standards set by the UK Resuscitation Council and the Health & Safety Executive in respect to content, course length, and certification expiry dates. This ensures full alignment with the Health & Safety at Work Act (First Aid Regulations 1981).
More importantly, you leave with hands-on training experience, greater situational awareness, and the ability to take decisive action when it matters most.
You’ll also gain a deeper understanding of risk planning and incident response, helping your organisation to meet its duty of care and operational planning responsibilities.
Course delivery and Remote Locations
The Remote Locations First Aid Course is delivered face-to-face over three days and can be run:
At our dedicated training locations in the UK
At your site, office, or deployment base
On-location in the environment you’ll be operating in (subject to risk assessment)
We can tailor the content to reflect your team’s actual deployment environment, be it a desert, jungle, mountain range, or urban disaster zone.
Customisation and Group Bookings
We can deliver this course on location, tailored to your team’s specific operating environment—UK or overseas. Perfect for production companies, NGO deployment training, and freelance journalist collectives.
Yes. The course content supports remote deployment and can be tailored to your organisation’s environment, including humanitarian and disaster relief contexts.
Yes. We cover improvised evacuation methods, stretcher use, and how to prepare for helicopter or vehicle extraction in remote terrain.
Absolutely. We specialise in on-location remote first aid training for teams across the UK and beyond.
EXCELLENT Based on 10 reviews Posted on Samantha KeverenTrustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. I attended the FREC 3 Course last week and it was engaging from beginning to end, no death by powerpoint!, just excellent teaching from a trainer with vast experience in the field and with great up to date knowledge. Relaxed daily hands on practical sessions built into the learning schedule with realistic scenarios, which were great for building my confidence and knowledge. Would highly recommend completing training with Toby and I look forward to completing my FREC 4 with Optimal First Aid in the near future.Posted on Alfred MorlandTrustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Did a FREC 3 course here, great instructor and a good amount of hands-on training which helps seal in the information! Would definitely recommendPosted on Richard EdmondsTrustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. A really useful course with practical learning for the outdoor scenario which is somuch more useful than just the First Aid at Work course.Posted on Chris AndrewTrustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. The most relevant first aid course I've ever attended. A course crammed with relevant content that was clearly tailored to the participants. All of the advice and techniques were given by someone who had used them in real situations, not taken from a text book. The practical exercises were brilliant and really gave the feel of an actual emergency (worryingly so!). The course is more costly than a more basic course, but are you ticking boxes or training for an actual situation? As someone who is self employed (and so pays the cost! ) I thought it was well worth the money. I can recommend this course to anyone, especially if you are in a more rural environment. Unfortunately I booked my course on a wet day in January. I still enjoyed the course, but next time I might well choose a warmer time of year.Posted on Joanne KnightTrustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Attended a great outdoor first aid training course with Toby from Optimal First Aid. Very knowledgeable, hands on experience. Well tailored to our workplace. Highly recommend.Posted on Chloe NunnTrustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. I did their outdoor first aid course in October 2025. It was engaging and informative. The high level of hands on practice and scenario based exercises enhance my confidence. I've previously had comparable training through lifeguarding, and while reminders of the basics was incredibly useful, I also felt that this course gave me skills in situation triage and management which I haven't had before.Posted on Simon BrentTrustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Toby made the day both interesting and enjoyable. Many thanks. Simon Brent, Area Manager F&W Forestry UK Ltd.Posted on Susie AdamsTrustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Well organised, concise sessions. Lots of hands on training. Leader very approachable. Highly recommend.Posted on Gabriele WarwickTrustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. very good course and teaches in a way that makes you remember the content. hands on and practical as well as good theory. the course has helped me respond to first aid scenarios in real life as well as design evacuation plans and first aid kits for different outdoor settings.Posted on Maria HindTrustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Fantastic course! Toby makes the learning achievable and fun ! I wouldn't work with anyone else! Highly recommend 👌
Contact us about our Courses
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