First Aid

What is first aid?

First aid is the initial helping action or medical care you may receive if you have an acute injury or illness. It can be minor assistance, like cleaning and bandaging minor cuts and scrapes. But it can also be acting fast to help someone with a life-threatening medical emergency.

First aid is meant to do the following:

• Save lives
• Limit suffering
• Avoid or reduce the severity of further illness
• Improve or speed up recovery

First responders like paramedics, EMTs or firefighters are often the ones who start first aid. But almost anyone can learn and perform it.

What can first aid treat?

First aid can treat a huge range of conditions, and many aren’t emergencies. Examples of nonemergency conditions and symptoms that first aid can treat include:

• Bee, hornet, wasp and yellow jacket stings
• Exposure to irritating, poisonous plants like poison ivy, poison oak or poison sumac
• Knocked-out (avulsed) teeth
• Minor burns (all superficial burns and partial-thickness burns small enough to cover with your hand)
• Minor epistaxis (nosebleed)
• Sprains and strains
• Superficial skin wounds like cuts (lacerations), bruises (contusions) or scrapes (abrasions)
• Tick bites

First aid can save lives or prevent permanent disabilities when used for emergency conditions and symptoms like:

• Anaphylaxis
• Asthma attacks
• Bites from snakes or spiders
• Chemical injuries to your eyes and skin
• Chest pain
• Head injuries (like concussions and traumatic brain injuries)
• Electrical injuries and electrocution
• Exertion-related dehydration
• Eye injuries
• Fainting (syncope) and near-fainting (presyncope)
• Frostbite
• Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
• Most broken bones (fractures)
• Opioid overdose
• Seizures and status epilepticus
• Severe burns
• Shock
• Spine or spinal cord injuries
• Severe nosebleeds
• Stings from jellyfish and scorpions
• Stroke and transient ischemic attacks (TIAs)
• Temperature extremes like hyperthermia or heat stroke, or low body temperature (hypothermia)

Skills that fall under first aid

First aid includes the following skills:

• Bandaging wounds
• Cooling and rehydration for heat-related illnesses or warming for hypothermia
• CPR and rescue breathing
• Helping someone who’s choking (either with backslaps for children or the Heimlich maneuver)
• Placing someone in the recovery position (on their side with their ground-side arm extended and beneath their head for support)
• Removing ticks
• Shock first aid
• Splinting
• Stopping bleeding with direct pressure and stopping nosebleeds
• Treating bee, hornet, wasp and yellow jacket stings
• Using autoinjectors for conditions like severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis)
• Using rescue devices like automated external defibrillators
• Using tourniquets when pressure on a bleeding limb doesn’t stop bleeding

What are some key principles of first aid to know?

Some of the most important principles of first aid include:

• Stay calm. Take a deep breath, focus on what you need to do and do your best.
• Get help. If you’re concerned someone’s in danger, don’t delay. Seconds and minutes might make all the difference. Either call for help directly or send someone to do so.
• Don’t endanger yourself. You can’t help anyone if you need saving.
• Prioritize. Manage the most dangerous issues first. Remember the ABCs: airway, breathing and circulation. Check to see that their mouth and airway are clear. Once you know it’s clear, check for breathing. If they aren’t breathing, start CPR.
• Limit movement. Try not to move people with unknown injuries. You might make the injury worse. The only exception is when not moving them would risk further harm.
• Don’t rely on luck or hope. If you’re hesitant to provide first aid to someone and there’s a chance their condition will get worse, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Hoping for the best or that you get a lucky break can be dangerous.

Who can perform first aid?

Anyone can perform first aid, and everyone should learn it. And in a situation where someone needs help, anyone who has the training and ability should perform first aid.

One of the key things you learn as part of first aid training is your limitations. That means you understand what you don’t know how to do or don’t feel you can do safely.

How do I learn first aid?

First aid is something you can learn from a variety of sources. They can include:

• School programs. Students can often sign up for first aid classes. Some classes may count toward curriculum requirements.
• Workplace classes. Many employers or organizations will pay for staff members to complete first aid classes.
• Local nonprofit organizations. Depending on where you live, there may be organizations that teach first aid classes. The cost of the classes can vary.

What do I need for a first aid kit?

First aid kits often come preassembled. But you can also prepare one on your own. The main first aid guidelines in the U.S. include specific guidance for what to include in your first aid kit. Some examples of key supplies include:

• Adhesive bandages
• Alcohol-based hand sanitizer
• Glucose tablets
• Medical exam gloves
• Notepad and pencil
• Shears/utility scissors
• Sterile bandages/gauze
• Tape (both medical adhesive tape and duct tape)
• Tourniquet
• Tweezers