Destination Outdoors - First Aid Kit Contents

The choice of contents for a wilderness medical kit can vary from the minimalist kit – a roll of duct tape and a roll of sterile gauze – to the maximalist kit that could alone burden the back of a strong porter. Every kit carried in the wild outdoors should at least be the result of much forethought.

General Guidelines

Accept the fact that there is no such thing as the perfect outdoor medical kit. Eventually, no matter how much you plan and prepare, someday you’ll want something that isn’t there and/or discover you’ve carried an item for years and never used it. Take into account the following factors:

The environmental extremes you will face, such as altitude, cold, heat, and endemic diseases
The number of people who may require care
The number of days the kit will be in use
The distance from definitive medical care
The availability of rescue, e.g., helicopter
your medical expertise and/or the expertise of other group members
Pre-existing problems of group members (such as diabetes)

You will most certainly want to be able to:

Clean and bandage all wounds including blisters, cuts, scrapes, and burns
Secure with a splint all suspected fractures
Adequately treat athletic injuries, such as sprained ankles
Handle the common minor emergencies, such as splinters
Protect yourself with basic body substance isolation gear, such as rubber gloves

Whenever possible, choose items that are versatile rather than particular. For example, a wide variety of sizes and shapes of Band-Aids® is nice, but wound coverings can be improvised from pads of gauze and strips of tape. Triangular bandages are useful, but safety pins and T-shirts can be used to improvise slings. Medical adhesive tape has limited usefulness compared to duct tape.

General Guidelines
	Accept the fact that there is no such thing as the perfect outdoor medical kit. Eventually, no matter how much you plan and prepare, someday you’ll want something that isn’t there and/or discover you’ve carried an item for years and never used it. Take into account the following factors: The environmental extremes you will face, such as altitude, cold, heat, and endemic diseases The number of people who may require care The number of days the kit will be in use The distance from definitive medical care The availability of rescue, e.g., helicopter your medical expertise and/or the expertise of other group members Pre-existing problems of group members (such as diabetes)
	You will most certainly want to be able to: Clean and bandage all wounds including blisters, cuts, scrapes, and burns Secure with a splint all suspected fractures Adequately treat athletic injuries, such as sprained ankles Handle the common minor emergencies, such as splinters Protect yourself with basic body substance isolation gear, such as rubber gloves
	Whenever possible, choose items that are versatile rather than particular. For example, a wide variety of sizes and shapes of Band-Aids® is nice, but wound coverings can be improvised from pads of gauze and strips of tape. Triangular bandages are useful, but safety pins and T-shirts can be used to improvise slings. Medical adhesive tape has limited usefulness compared to duct tape.