Building and Using a Scout First Aid Kit

A practical personal kit

• Several adhesive bandages in useful sizes
• Sterile gauze pads and a small roll of gauze
• Medical or athletic tape
• Moleskin or blister pads
• A small triangular bandage
• Disposable nitrile gloves
• Antiseptic wipes or hand sanitizer for hand hygiene
• Tweezers for splinters and ticks
• A compact emergency information card with allergies, medications, and emergency contacts as appropriate

Useful patrol or group additions

• More gauze, dressings, tape, and gloves for larger wounds
• Elastic wraps and triangular bandages
• Trauma shears
• A CPR breathing barrier
• Cold pack and emergency blanket
• Irrigation syringe or another clean-water irrigation method
• Commercial tourniquet and wound-packing material when trained responders are present
• Splinting material appropriate to the activity and evacuation environment

Medication and specialty items

Medication rules vary by family, unit, council, camp, and applicable law. Any medication carried for a Scout should follow the trip's health-plan requirements, be clearly labeled, and be used only as authorized. Personal lifesaving medications such as an epinephrine autoinjector, rescue inhaler, or prescribed naloxone should be readily accessible and known to the responsible adults and the Scout when age-appropriate.

Kit maintenance

• Inspect the kit before every outing. Replace used, expired, wet, damaged, or contaminated supplies.
• Package contents so bleeding-control supplies and gloves are easy to reach without emptying the entire kit.
• Protect supplies from water in a durable bag or container.
• After an incident, restock immediately and review whether the kit had the right supplies for the problem encountered.