Aid Bag Tips

Over the years I have noticed and gathered a few tricks of the trade that make setting up your Aid Bag much easier. The same tricks can be applied to any size of bag from a First Responder bag to a full on trauma bag.

Organize

The more organized you are the more efficient you’ll be. And the more efficient you are the better job you can do at saving some ones life.

So the first in organizing our bag is to group similar things together as they will be used in treatment. For instance; basic airway adjuncts, large bleed stuff, small wound care, tools, advance airway, fractures, etc. This is to limit the number of pouches you have to open to get what you need.

But simply grouping like items is not enough. Your large wound care or needles for your drugs may be all together but there are still many items with in this category that can be grouped together. Take some plastic baggies and start dividing them into smaller like items. IE: 3cc syringes with each other, all your kerlex, etc. There is another acceptable method of making “packs” each pack will contain 1 or 2 of each thing that may be needed to treat a patient instead of a bunch of one. IE: kling with ace, non-sterile bulk 4x4’s, and extra tape. Or one 5cc syringe, one 3cc and an assortment of needles. Your imagination is the only limitation to how you build these packs. Personally I have a couple “small wound care,” and basic/advance airway packs, but keep my large wound care stuff separate.

Tab

Tab everything! If it has a corner that can be folded down and creased, do it. Some people like to take it a step further and put some pull tabs out of tape on too. You tab equipment that way when your gloves are all bloody and slippery you don’t have to fumble with a package. Even tab your tape.

Packaging

Companies love putting their products in excessive packaging.

Ace bandaging comes in a plastic wrap with some cheesy fastener clips. Take the ace out of the wrapping and remove one or all of the clips. You can replace them with a small piece of tabbed tape.

Israli dressings come in a double sealed sterile packaging. Take it out of the first one and its still sterile but now you only have to get through one package instead of two.

Sam splints are another good example. Take them out of their wrapping and fold them into thirds, you will find they are easier to pack, quicker to prep for splinting and more accessible this way.

Make sure your tourniquets are prepped and out of their plastic wrap.

If you get your hands on those handy little packets of KY, go ahead and open up the packaging on your NPA and slid it in with it. If there is no packaging tape it near the top with a small piece of tape.

Improvisation

Any good medic should know how to make the most use of their gear. And packing things that have two uses in not only efficient it helps cut down on the weight you have to hull around!

A large bore syringe with the right application of tape, NPA, or bulb syringe tip can make a handy suction.

I’ve seen occlusive dressing prepped before they are needed. Take your material and tape down all side to a larger piece of plastic in your bag. I personally like to use syrane wrap, all you have to do is wrapped their chest and wa-la! Add some tape for extra security, and you just sealed a lot of wounds very quickly. 

Cric kits are easy to make; use a 6.0 ET tube (smallest cuffed tube) and cut it down half way (make sure to not cut the inflator tube)

Add a scalpel, some 550 or kling as a securing device, along with a bent 14ga needle (as a cric hook), alcohol/iodine pads and BAM one cric kit.

In the end it comes down to doing what works best for you, and these are but a few things to help you out.

If you have any more stuff you think would be good on here send it in, I know I sure dont know it all.