Long before wilderness medicine became a formal part of Sheryl Olson’s career, she was already putting its principles into practice.

While working as a backpacking guide in Colorado, a 14-year-old participant fell and fractured her arm. Sheryl, already a nurse, assessed the injury and improvised a splint with the materials available.

“From that moment, the ball was rolling,” she recalls. Today, Sheryl Olson, RN, BSN, is an instructor in wilderness and travel medicine, survival, and navigation. She teaches International Wilderness Life Support, speaks at wilderness medicine conferences and gatherings, and brings 30 years of teaching experience to MedTreks.

Sheryl Olson at a glance

• Current role: Instructor in wilderness and travel medicine, survival, and navigation
• Credentials: RN, BSN
• Teaching experience: 30 years
• Clinical background: 11 years in intensive care and 18 years as a helicopter flight nurse
• Areas of focus: Wilderness medicine, lightning, altitude illness, orthopedic injuries, wound care, safety, survival, and navigation
• Outdoor and travel experience: Mountain treks, rivers, safaris, and cultural journeys across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia

A nursing career built for the field

Sheryl began as a backpacking guide in Colorado and spent 10 summers leading people through the mountains. After 11 years working in intensive care, she found a way to combine her clinical background with her love of the outdoors as a helicopter flight nurse in Colorado, a role she held for 18 years.

That work also gave her opportunities to teach wilderness medicine at conferences and on adventure-based courses. Over the years, she has provided education on climbing and trekking journeys to Kilimanjaro, Everest Base Camp, Machu Picchu, Patagonia, and France.

Her broader outdoor and travel experience includes safaris in Kenya, Tanzania, and Namibia; rafting trips in Colorado, Oregon, and California; and cultural journeys through Morocco, Guatemala, Peru, and Chile.

Building confidence before an emergency happens

Sheryl teaches wilderness medicine broadly, with particular interests in lightning, altitude illness, orthopedic injuries, wound care, survival, and navigation. She also enjoys teaching improvisation, patient assessment, critical decision-making, evacuation, traveler’s diarrhea, and topics related to women in the wilderness.

Her goal is to give adventurers a practical foundation that helps them travel more safely and manage medical situations when an incident occurs in a remote environment.

Asked which skill every clinician should strengthen outside the hospital, Sheryl chooses the assessment and management of orthopedic injuries. That skill becomes especially important when equipment is limited and reaching definitive care may take time.

Why Sheryl Olson prefers teaching outdoors

When asked what she enjoys most about teaching with MedTreks, Sheryl’s answer is immediate: “Teaching out of doors!”

She also values the smaller, more intimate settings and the additional interaction they create. Participants have more opportunities to ask questions, practice skills, and connect what they are learning to the environment around them.

Her advice for someone joining their first MedTreks experience is equally straightforward: “Let go of expectations and embrace the experience.”

Outside of teaching, Sheryl is a scuba diver and underwater photographer. She always packs a SAM splint, makes her own trail mix (with good chocolate, of course) and resets by hiking or sitting beside a river to watch the sunset. Wherever she is, she looks for a place where she can simply be.

Learn with Sheryl and the MedTreks faculty

Sheryl is part of the faculty for the MedTreks Wilderness Medicine Instructor Course, a small-group program for clinicians, EMS professionals, outdoor educators, and future wilderness medicine instructors.

You can also meet the rest of the MedTreks team.