Make Your Own First Aid Kit

The First Aid Merit Badge is an Eagle Scout Rank required badge but there are some basic first aid requirements taught to all Scouts beginning at the Tenderfoot Rank such as:

Identify local poisonous plants; tell how to treat for exposure to them.

Demonstrate how to care for someone who is choking (Heimlich maneuver).

Show first aid for the following:
o Simple cuts and scrapes, abrasions
o Blisters on the hand and foot
o Minor (thermal/heat) burns or scalds (superficial, or first degree)
o Bites and stings of insects and ticks
o Venomous snakebite
o Nosebleed
o Frostbite and sunburn

Then as a Scout moves up to the Second Class Rank he must learn and exhibit ability to perform these more advanced First Aid skills:

Show what to do for "hurry" cases of stopped breathing, serious bleeding, and ingested poisoning.

Prepare a personal first aid kit to take with you on a hike.

Demonstrate first aid for the following:
o Object in the eye
o Bite of a suspected rabid animal
o Puncture wounds from a splinter, nail, and fishhook
o Serious burns (partial thickness, or second degree)
o Heat exhaustion
o Shock
o Heatstroke, dehydration, hypothermia, and hyperventilation
o Demonstrate your ability to jump feet first into water over your head in depth, level off and swim 25 feet on the surface, stop, turn sharply, resume swimming, then return to your starting place.
o Demonstrate water rescue methods by reaching with your arm or leg, by reaching with a suitable object, and by throwing lines and objects. Explain why swimming rescues should not be attempted when a reaching or throwing rescue is possible, and explain why and how a rescue swimmer should avoid contact with the victim.

As a Boy Scout approaches the First Class Rank he is expected to meet these requirements for First AID and Safety:

Demonstrate tying the bowline knot and describe several ways it can be used.

Demonstrate bandages for a sprained ankle. and for injuries on the head, the upper arm, and the collarbone.

Show how to transport by yourself, and with one other person, a person:
o From a smoke-filled room
o With a sprained ankle, for at least 25 yards.

Tell the five most common signals of a HEART ATTACK. Explain the steps (procedures) in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Tell what precautions must be taken for a safe trip afloat.

Successfully complete the BSA swimmer test.

With a helper and a practice victim, show a line rescue both as tender and rescuer. (The practice victim should be approximately 30 feet from shore in deep water.)

Camping Life