# Serious: Poll and Post About First Aid Kits/Equipment



## mycrofft (Jul 20, 2010)

If I am ever called, I have an opportunity to give input as to the composition and maintenance of the *first aid kits *mandated to be at the workplace primarily for the use of/by/on employees in California.

Please take the time to leave a post and/_*or a message *_and respond to the poll in regards to the following as it is appropriate:


If you are a manager at a jobsite/business/activity, what are your concerns about first aid kit regulations?

As a lay-person or responder at work, what do you want to have in the everyday kits available to workers that is different than they have now, and what needs to go?

As a responder to a business from outside, what techniques and materials would you want used by lay or basically-trained people before you come get the patient(s)? Do you have anecdotes about recurrent poor or outstanding actions/materials in the on-site first aid before you arrive? 

As a receiving or aeromedical practitioner, what do you wish everyone would stop doing or using before you get the patient?

Please remember this is about materials and equipment, but I'm open to comments about training and perfoormance as well. Mention which category you fit. Some examples of places these kits would be found (please stick to what you are experienced in):

1. "Small" public gathering places (restaurants/bars, churches, retail establishments, bowling alleys, etc.).
2. Large public gathering places (casinos, theaters, schools, events, sporting events, passenger terminals, etc.).
3. Manufacturing, heavy and light industrial (gas station with garage, steel mill, paper mill, saw mill, etc.).
4. Mining/logging/fishing/transport terminals.
5. In vehicles (trucks, buses, airplanes, shuttles, boats, etc).
6. In-home long term care facilities not employing above nusrsing assistants, group homes, halfway houses, etc.
7. Other.

Thanks for your sharing experience. Please, if you need to cross-chat, consider using messaging or chat room if it is not very germane.


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## mycrofft (Jul 21, 2010)

*Quiet bunch.*

h34r:......


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## abckidsmom (Jul 21, 2010)

mycrofft said:


> If I am ever called, I have an opportunity to give input as to the composition and maintenance of the *first aid kits *mandated to be at the workplace primarily for the use of/by/on employees in California.
> 
> Please take the time to leave a post and/_*or a message *_and respond to the poll in regards to the following as it is appropriate:
> 
> ...




As the safety person at a church with 500 people through on a Sunday, 250 kids for AWANA weekly and VBS annually, I can speak to this issue a little.

I go to the first aid kit for bandaids.  Seriously.  We go through about a Sams Club box of bandaids every couple of months. 

Also in the box are every kind of ointment, special bandages, and all the required stuff that are in first aid kits.  That stuff expires.

I have actually used the ice packs out of the first aid kit also, but they weren't restocked because we have actual ice on hand, and just use that.


I truly believe that first aid kits in commercial places are basically useless.  They are raided for bandaids, and when the bandaids give out, the people take the 4x4s, kling and tape, and when there's a serious need for a first aid kit, people grab paper towels, because there is no way the dregs of bandages can handle the bleeding from a serious lac.

I carry my own bag in the car that I grab if I really need something.  (Yep, I just said that out loud.  With 5 kids, and most gatherings I'm at having 30+ kids, I really need my own well stocked first aid kit all the time.)


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## mycrofft (Jul 21, 2010)

*Thanks abckidsmom! Anyone else?*

Your observation seems to dovetail with mine.
At my work, (since retired!), we had trauma bags that were being raided for their contents (mostly normal saline, shears, 4X4's).


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## JPINFV (Jul 21, 2010)

Movie theaters (same company): I'm actually not sure what first aid supplies they had at either theater I worked at. 

Waterpark: Medical department, more than ample stock. Everyone who was first aid/CPR certified (i.e. supervisors and life guards) were required to carry around a CPR mask and a plastic baggie with some 4x4s and a pair of gloves.


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## Veneficus (Jul 21, 2010)

I don't have a non medical work place so I didn't vote.

But in the past I have worked in non medical places and the best kits were the ones with burn spray and OTC meds. The rest of the crap was never used.


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## mycrofft (Jul 21, 2010)

*JPINV. what about the stuff stocked for use by the staff?*

I was managing a kit system rangi up to 1/2 arsed ACLS sprread out over fifteen acres in twenty-six kit sites, and we were still required to have those little white boxes in the medical section. We sealed em in plastic bags.


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## JPINFV (Jul 22, 2010)

The stuff used by the first aid staff?

Tackle box style trauma kit (never used), AED, jump bag single strap backpack with O2 tank, fully stocked.

First aid room had basically a full range of basic first aid supplies (bandaids, burn cream, 4x4s, tape, splints, wrap, both chemical cold packs and an ice chest kept full of ice to make ice packs), oxygen, and OTC medications that was supposed to be limited to park workers on request. I don't know if there was a little white box anywhere else (first aid was centrally located whereas the main break area was in the back by the operations building).


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## Wild_Weasel (Jul 22, 2010)

I’m a civilian contractor responsible for 22 people here in Afghanistan.  We have J&J first aid kits scattered around if you get a boo-boo.  I’ve assembled a jump kit that focuses on the types of trauma and medical emergencies one would expect here: being shot, blown up by a rocket or mortar, and AMI / choking on the crappy food at the dining hall.  I’m also half way through an EMT-B course and updating my CPR to CPR for the Professional.  Need to get buys ordering the stuff for a safety board including an AED.

Cheers,
W-W


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## mycrofft (Jul 22, 2010)

*I'll be sure to forward your reply to the committee if they ever call me!*

Dang. RPG's and mortars and mines, oh my!  Snakes?


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## Wild_Weasel (Jul 22, 2010)

Yes, oodles of snakes, scorpions, and camel spiders.  

Cheers,
W-W


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## Melclin (Jul 24, 2010)

*Simplicity*

Didn't vote, but I do some teaching of first responders/first aiders.

I think clearly marked/colour coded/labeled (I know its written on the packaging, but I mean uniform clear large labels stuck on the kit next to the piece of gear) helps people to learn the bits and pieces. Colour coded labels for gear with a colour key on the lid with a brief description of its use works well. It also helps people easily identify the bit you're looking for when you're not familiar with the kit.

There is always seems to be a fair bit of unnecessary crap in first aid kits. Simplicity is better I feel. Break them down and get rid of stuff you don't need methinks.


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## mycrofft (Jul 24, 2010)

*A bit of kindling for the fire...snippets of the California law.*

Contents of kits for a few indutries are specified (if I recall, mining and marine port operations, but I really ought to read that huge thing again).Contents of all kits are subject to approval by the company MD. 

How long has it been since companies had their own medical departments? Or "company doctors", which nowadays would sound like a slap in the face.

When the components are listed, they include things akin to "eye cream" (say what?Found in an "OSHA compliant" kit I disenmboweled recently), "burn cream", "tweezers", tourniquets, two types of bandaids, huge gauze bandages...the list goes on. But is there a standard for the contents? What sort of stuff do you find in a kit? Some of the honeys I'v found over the years:


One inch long straight blunt scissors.
One and a half inch long tweezers made from thin pressed tin, with blunt rounded tips, that will not reopen after being queezed once.
Snakebite kits with #11 scalpel blades sans handle, thin cotten cord for a tourniquet, an ampuole of iodine with/without an outdate, and nesting cracked rubber suction cups as the kit's package.
Wound tourniquets made of four inches of 1/4 inch pine dowel and a foot length of a 1/2 inch wide strip of gauze, or even thick woven cotton like a web belt.
And on and on.


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