Prep Series Week 4: First Aid & Medication

This is part four of our ten-part toolkit series providing a step-by-step guide about how to prepare for disaster. You can read Parts 1-3 in the Resources & Toolkits page of Cramming for the Apocalypse.

One of the things that has a lot of folks anxious about disaster preparedness is preparing for injuries or illness. In an emergency, medical care might be delayed or unavailable. Having the right tools (and training!) to address basic concerns at home could make the difference for survival. 

This post is designed to give you the basic tools for first aid and medical care to equip you in case of an emergency. This will come in the form of basic lists of what you should stock up and guidance on what kind of training you might want to invest in.This is not an exhaustive list, as First Aid and medical care is vast with a lot of nuance. An important disclaimer:  I AM NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL and I don’t play one on the internet. While these are general First Aid recommendations from my research and experience, if you have medical questions, reach out to your medical care provider.

Okay, now that you know that this post includes general recommendations from someone who is NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, let’s talk about building your household’s First Aid Kit.

General First Aid Kit

Every household should have a general first aid kit in any event. Even in cases where there is medical emergency assistance readily available, there is still going to be a lag time where your on-hand tools and basic first aid knowledge will keep you and your family safer. 

For your first aid kit, the Red Cross recommends the following which is a good place to start, especially if this is an overwhelming idea to you: 

• 2 absorbent compress dressings (5 x 9 inches) 

• 25 adhesive bandages (assorted sizes) 

• 1 adhesive cloth tape (10 yards x 1 inch) 

• 5 antibiotic ointment packets (approximately 1 gram) 

• 5 antiseptic wipe packets 

• 2 packets of aspirin (81 mg each) 

• 1 emergency blanket

• 1 breathing barrier (with one-way valve)

• 1 instant cold compress

• 2 pair of nonlatex gloves (size: large)

• 2 hydrocortisone ointment packets (approximately 1 gram each) 

• 1 3 in. gauze roll (roller) bandage

• 1 roller bandage (4 inches wide) 

• 5 3in.x3in. sterile gauze pads 

• 5 sterile gauze pads (4 x 4 inches)  

• Oral thermometer (non-mercury/nonglass)

• 2 triangular bandages 

• Tweezers

My personal (non-professional!) advice is to double this and add to it (including larger options for disinfectants and antibacterial creams). Having a general kit (or three) is important–a kit for your household, a kit for your cars, and a kit that lives in or with your Go-bags or evacuation kits.

I would add to this general kit several Over-The-Counter (OTC) medications, including:

• Acetaminophen (tylenol)

• Aspirin

• Naproxen Sodium (Aleve)

• Ibuprofin

• Bismuth tablets (Pepto bismol)

• Diphenhydramine (Benadryl)

• Antihistamines or allergy medications

• Anti-Nausea medications

• Anti-Diarrhea medications

• General Cold and Flu medications 

• Activated Charcoal (incase of poisoning)

• Peppermints or ginger chews

• Rehydration powders

• Antifungal powders (for shoes)

• Pulse Oximeter

• Battery-powered Blood Pressure Cuff

• Medicated mouthwash

• Benzocaine (Oragel) 

• Bug Spray

• Sunscreen

• Aloe gel

• Instructional guide

Make sure to have both adult and child versions of your medications, and check to ensure there are no allergies to medications or possible medical complications with prescriptions before adding OTC meds to your kit. Just like with your food storage, check expiration dates and rotate annually as needed. Some medications (like tylenol) will still have efficacy past expiration, but it’s better to be on top of this. 

Brekke has a whole home inventory guide you might want to check out.

Prescription Medications

It’s important to begin a conversation now with your doctor about your essential prescription medications. In an ideal world, having a one month backup supply that you keep on hand (and rotate as needed) is the goal. But, many medications are restricted to dosage per prescription, are cost-prohibitive, or there’s a delay to stock up on backups.

To overcome this challenge, it will take some time and you’ll want to start working with your doctor about how to approach having this emergency supply. Look at alternative ways to pay for pricier drugs (like Mark Ruben’s CostPlus Drugs). Some drugs, like Zofran for nausea, you might be able to ask for upon request, even if you don’t have an active stomach bug in your family.

Stocking Up On Antibiotics

While antibiotics aren’t needed day-to-day, they may be necessary in case of infection during an emergency. However, to acquire them, there might be similar barriers as to prescription medications. Many in the preparedness world have stocked up on over-the-counter available fish antibiotics as an alternative, so I want to address this here and note this is not advised. And by fish antibiotics, I do mean antibiotics made for our finned friends. While these may be cheaper and easier to get for your first aid kit, they are unregulated and taking antibiotics unnecessarily can do damage to your body and create resistance to other antibiotics (see more in this Smithsonian story). There is a better way than buying animal-grade antibiotics if your doctor will not write a prescription for emergency backups.  

To buy fish antibiotics or not to buy fish antibiotics? While I personally have had good luck asking for prescriptions for antibiotics before traveling (and then holding on to these meds until they expire), not everyone has a doctor willing to write “unnecessary” antibiotic prescriptions. There is a better way than buying animal-grade antibiotics if your doctor will not write a prescription for emergency backups. There are some options for getting real human-grade antibiotics (like from Jase Case), but it’s always a good thing to start with your primary care doctor and have a discussion about how to take them and what circumstances warrant taking antibiotics. You don’t want to take any antibiotics unnecessarily because of the risk of developing antibiotic-resistant infections, so you want to be very clear what circumstances would require them.drug-resistant .

Individual First Aid Kit

An IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit) is a personal medical kit that has traditionally been carried by soldiers into combat. These differ from the General First Aid kits because they are designed mostly for addressing battlefield injuries/trauma injuries. While you might not be preparing for that level of engagement, it’s a solid system for having a smaller trauma kit that can be used on the go. 

Seven essentials for an IFAK are: 

• Tourniquets: To stop blood loss while you address the injury. Be sure to invest in good tourniquets and training–many are poorly made and could fail in an emergency.

• Wound Packing: Sterile gauze, Quick clot or other hemostatic dressing is a huge benefit because it hastens clotting of blood and slows blood loss. Make sure to have medical tape to keep dressings in place if they are not self-sealing.

• Bandages: A variety of bandages to address wounds, such as:

  • Butterfly bandages: Adhesive bandages used instead of stitches to treat cuts and lacerations.

  • Triangular bandages: These are used as a sling or to secure splints.

  • Roll gauze bandages: These are woven strips of sterile gauze rolls or elastic bandages.

  • Chest seals: These bandages are best for deep puncture wounds.

• Shears: These specialize scissors are needed for everything from cutting gauze to cutting away clothes or even a seatbelt strap

• Nasopharyngeal Airway (NPA): This is a vital part of an IFAK for airway management. This device is used for the insertion and removal of an airway obstruction through the nose and mouth. NPAs are usually made from a soft, flexible material that can easily be inserted through the nose or mouth without causing damage to surrounding tissue.

• Emergency Blanket: A simple Mylar survival blanket is a very light weight, small and inexpensive option for keeping warm after a wound; and if there is blood loss, body temperature regulation will be essential for survival.

• Personal Protection Equipment (PPE): This includes gloves, a face mask, and other supplies to keep you from contracting anything when responding to an emergency (I think we all certainly became familiar with these during the pandemic!).

Additions to consider are cleansers and disinfectants as well as wound flushing equipment, a small assortment of general Over-the-Counter (OTC) medications (aspirin, acetaminophen, burn creams, etc), and a few modest bandaids–for smaller situations. 

While building a trauma kit or IFAK might not be at the top of your list, having some of these more focused trauma-response items available is important for your own First Aid safety. 

Other Medical Considerations

Beyond first aid kit stocking up, here are some other important elements to address and consider.

Vaccinations

You should make sure you and your family are up-to-date on basic vaccinations including Tetanus (lockjaw can and will kill you) and the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine. Measles outbreaks are on the rise thanks to an increase of anti-vaccination sentiments and we have lost much of our herd immunity. In a true emergency, these childhood diseases will return, and if medical services are limited or unavailable, the consequences will be devastating.

Herbal Remedies

Another hot topic in preparedness circles is having the basic knowledge for herbal remedies. This topic is wide, nuanced, and requires deep knowledge. Thus, it is beyond the scope of this crash course in First Aid to cover herbs and alternative remedies. If this is something of interest to you, you should do your research and practice with herbal remedies before an emergency. It’s not a skill to try and perfect when an emergency is raging around you. This may be a skill you might be interested in diving into if you’re interested in cultivating long-term resilience. 

Skills For The Win

Gear is great, especially when it comes to First Aid and medical care. However, you need to have the skills to implement this care. Taking basic CPR and First Aid courses should be a top priority for everyone. 

While these basic skills will take you a long way, if you have the time and funds, taking Advanced First Aid courses like wilderness survival or CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training will add an additional layer to your preparedness plan. 

Courses and How to Find Them

• Basic First Aid: The Red Cross offers adult, child, and baby first aid and CPR around the U.S. and online. These are important skills to refresh every few years–certifications last two years, but skills can decline if you’re not using (and hopefully you don’t have to use them!).

• CERT (Community Emergency Response Team): This is a FEMA-sponsored program that trains volunteers in general disaster preparedness. In many of the places it’s offered, it puts you into a network of other volunteers who can be “deployed” within a disaster scenario. CERT trainings are often run by local governmental emergency management bureaus. For example, the CERT training is run through the Neighborhood Emergency Teams (NET) program through the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management. This is a great way to get involved in knowing how your community is prepared for disaster and to volunteer in those circumstances.

• Wilderness First Aid: The Red Cross and REI offer basic wilderness first aid classes. These are a step up from the basic first aid and CPR classes that provide training in those kinds of traumatic injuries that a trauma kit/IFAK has you prepared for (although the REI class might not include an IFAK class, they will include some of the materials used in the kit).

• Wilderness First Responder (WFR): To level up your skills even more, you can take a WFR course which find those with a variety of companies including Wilderness Medical Associates International, NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School), and sometimes with local colleges or universities.

Books to Have on Hand

Books are especially useful for those of us who are not medical professionals. My top recommendations are:

• The Survival Medicine Handbook

• Where There Is No Dentist by Murray Dickson

• US Army First Aid Manual (free online)

First Aid and medication is a massive topic to cover in just one week and to give you the tools to take practical steps for preparedness, so this could be way longer. However, we want to make this achievable, so this is where we’ll stop for this week. 

The key is to have your essential medications for up to one month, and a basic kit to manage small-scale emergencies at home. We are not trying to recreate a functioning ER in our dining room. We are trying to have what we need to manage when medical services are overwhelmed or unavailable. 

Action Steps

Make sure to download this week’s workbook to help you follow along on these action steps.

• Build your General First Aid Kit – start with one for the home, but if you have the wherewithal, build the same kit to put one in your car and later one in your “Go Bag” (note: Go Bags will be discussed later in this series). See pages 17-18 in the workbook for guidance on this.

• Talk to your doctor about acquiring an additional month’s supply of prescription medications including antibiotics. 

• Build your IFAK/Trauma Kit. See page 18 in the workbook for guidance on this.

• Make sure you’re up-to-date on your vaccines. See page 19 in the workbook for guidance on this.

• Decide which skills you need to build and take steps to gain those skills by signing up for classes. See page 20 in the workbook for guidance on this.

Let us know how the prepping is going! What questions do you have? What has been going well? What not so well? Is there additional info you need? Let us know in the comments!