St John Ambulance recommends that all families learn first aid and maintain a well-stocked first aid kit for the home and car - to help treat injuries and save lives in emergencies.
A first aid kit in the home should provide a useful range of different sized sterile dressings and wound covers to treat injuries such as abrasions and cuts.
In addition, a family kit should contain:
- Triangular bandages for emergency dressings and as a sling
- A range of conforming bandages to bind dressings in place and for pressure immobilisation
- A range of wound dressings to control bleeding and protect major wounds
- Combine pads for weeping or oozing wounds and padding major injuries
- Swabs for cleaning wounds
- Adhesive tape to secure light dressings
- Disposable hand towels for general cleaning (not wounds)
- Stainless steel scissors, to cut dressings, bandages, etc
- Saline eye wash for eye irrigation and wound cleaning
- Safety pins to secure bandages etc in place
- Medium plastic bags for a variety of uses including making ice packs
- Stainless steel tweezers for removing splinters
- A shock blanket to prevent loss of body heat
- A note pad and pencil to record times and details
- Disposable gloves to assist in preventing cross infection
St John recommends a resuscitation chart be kept in a first aid kit for emergencies such as drowning, heart attack, and electrocution.
St John kits contain a first aid guide to assist the first aider in any number of situations. This is important to serve as a reminder to people who have learnt first aid and to inform those who haven't what to do.
A Few Key Tips:
- Learn first aid. First aid is a practical skill, which should be taught by a professional first aid trainer.
- Never use cotton wool as a first aid material, the cotton fibres can cause complications in wound healing.
- Never put a lotion on a burn, correct first aid treatment for burns is to run the injured part under cool running water for 10 minutes (and seek medical aid if the burn is larger than a 20 cent piece).
- Keep a first aid manual and resuscitation chart in your first aid kit - even as a trained first aider, it can be difficult to think clearly in an emergency. A manual and chart can act as a life saving reminder and prompt.
- Ensure your kit has large universal dressings and pads for severe bleeding.
- Keep the kit in a location where it is accessible.
- If your first aid kit is accessible to children ensure you keep your medications in a location out of reach of children.
- When you use items from your first aid kit, replace them.
- Make sure you have a copy of the poisons information centre number in your kit - 13 11 26 (Australia wide).
- Ensure your kit is dust proof and easy to identify.
- Dispose of materials that have passed their use-by date.
- Remember that accidents happen everywhere - keep a kit at home and in the car.
Reproduced with permission from St John Ambulance NSW.