Murph asked me to write this post on “Essential items every CAP Member needs in their personal First Aid Kit.” I’m going to be working on a couple of assumptions here: one, you won’t be the team EMT/Medic; two, this is a base pack that should cover as many circumstances as possible. The first assumption means that you won’t be packing a huge amount of supplies; the second that we’re going to be working with tools that can be as polyvalent as possible.
As a general rule, I like my med kit to be modular: a small number of base items and a few separate packs covering some more precise, yet still general circumstances (e.g.: cold or hot weather injuries) that I can chuck into my go bag depending on the season and/or mission.
If you’re very lazy, there’s plenty of good suppliers out there from which you can obtain a decent base kit: I’ll only give two examples. Adventure Medical Kits has a number of options you can select from depending on the type of ‘hiking trip’ you’re planning. I like the no-frills ultralights as baseline, they’re small enough to be added on to your 24-hour gear, on a belt or tac vest, and there’s enough room in the bag to cram in a couple more things. On the more ‘professional’ side, a company like Galls has a wider range of kits, from small first aid to larger BLS or Basic Life Support bags (which you won’t be needing unless you’re caring for the whole team).
You’ll probably find out that doing a bit of shopping at your local pharmacy, especially when times come to resupply and/or augment your gear, will get you a lot more stuff on the same dollar.
To start with, then, either grab one of the small first aid bags aforementioned or equivalent, or if you feel like designing your own, pick up the supplies they contain: you will need at minimum some variety of bandages and sterile dressings. Triangular bandages are sometimes hard to find these days, but they are the most polyvalent of all and I highly recommend carrying at least a couple in your kit: one of my former EMT instructors, a former Army nurse known as “The Colonel” and rumored to have fought in every war since Independence, confirmed what my British instructors had taught me -there’s nothing you cannot do with a triangular bandage. In the same spirit, pack a trash bag in your med kit -I have never been on an EMS call or CAP mission when I didn’t have use for a trash bag: from dumping stuff in it to making an occlusive dressing for a sucking chest wound.
Sterile dressings (aka non-adhesive pads) will help you clean and cover a wound and can be packed for padding, and they don’t take much space, so you should pack a few -preferably large ones, you can always cut and resize if you need smaller ones. While we’re on the topic of cleaning wounds, be aware that disinfecting a wound by applying liberal amounts of coloured and branded substances will not clean the wound. The best thing for wound cleaning is clean water (and soap), or sterile saline. For your 72-hour pack, then, since it’s a tad bulky, you should get one of those handy saline spray canisters: the pressure helps remove debris etc. from the wound. (Again, polyvalent: you can totally justify it in your 72-h because it can act as emergency hydration.) Cleaning wipes, both regular and disinfecting can also be packed in moderate quantities. Remember, though, that alcohol will sting mightily while iodine can be tissue toxic and masks the wound by its colour; so again what you really want to do is clean the wound thoroughly and dress it so that it’s not exposed to the environment.
Some extra blister-specific dressings are always a good idea: moleskin of course, and I’m a huge fan of hydrocolloid dressings on clean skin.
You’ll need some form of adhesive tape to secure your bandages and of course some geeks will want to do it with duct tape. It’ll work, it’s just not mighty comfortable.
Add to this a couple of rolls of gauze (bandage/pad), a good pair of trauma shears to cut anything that could need to be cut, some gloves (latex or nitrile) and you’re pretty much set with the basics. I’d throw away the tweezers if any that came with a pre-made kit: if it’s a wasp’s stinger you’ll want to scrap it out; if it’s anything big you’ll want to pad around it; if it’s anything else and small, using tweezers runs the risk of breaking it and leaving smaller pieces under the skin.
An emergency blanket is also a must, but that should be part of your general 24h in any case, as well as many prevention items: first and foremost, hydration (winter as well as summer); insect repellant (Deet) and sunscreen depending on the season; rain gear; appropriate clothing for the worst possible weather you could encounter on the mission, etc.
I always like to throw a few of my favourite pain-relief meds (ibuprofen, etc.) as well as a couple of anti-diarrheic and anti-histamine pills in for good measure -all available over the counter. Your first aid kit should also comprise all of your current medications; good practice suggests that you put the ones you just bought into the kit and use the ones that were in your kit in a constant rotation, so that you’re sure to always have fresh ones in the kit.
If you have any room left, a cold pack or two can be a good idea (pain relief/hyperthermia), although it’s usually not too hard to make your own if you have access to ice while commercial packs can break on a rough hike and become useless by the time you need them.
That’s about it for now, and you should be able to easily fit all of this in a pack on your belt.
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