Building a comprehensive and well-stocked first aid kit is an essential part of your company’s health and safety policy, providing you with the tools you need to treat injuries and potentially save lives. You no doubt have a good supply of common medical supplies, such as band aids, disinfectant wipes, and mild pain relief medication. However, your first aid kit could be made even more helpful in an emergency with the addition of certain items that you might not have previously considered. Here are four less obvious medical items to include in your company’s first aid kit.
- Defibrillator
A defibrillator is a device which administers a high energy electric shock to the heart of someone going into cardiac arrest. Survival rates increase greatly the earlier the patient receives defibrillation and with many cardiac arrests occurring outside a medical environment, more and more organizations are opting to invest in a defibrillator for their business in the event that such a situation should occur. Defibrillators often include clear instructions, meaning that anyone can use them, but you might want to consider supplementing this with CPR training for your staff.
- Stretcher
An accident might occur in your workplace involving someone falling and being unable to get up and walk on their own; for instance, they might have suffered a bad strain, or have injured their foot. You might not want to risk further injury through incorrect handling, either to the injured person or the would-be rescuers. In this case, a stretcher would enable you to safely manoeuvre the injured person to receive further medical attention. Visit rapid-rescue.com.au/scoop-stretchers/ for more information about stretchers. Remember, however, that moving a severely injured patient should be left to medical professionals, as to do so inexpertly could risk further harm.
- Space blanket
A space blanket (so called because they are made of the same material used on the outside of space ships for thermal control) is a light weight, low bulk blanket made of heat reflective plastic sheeting used to retain body heat. As such, they are incredibly useful pieces of equipment to have in any emergency situation. For instance, they can be used to keep people warm in an emergency building evacuation, be used to provide comfort if a person has sustained an injury outside to reduce the risk of hypothermia, or used to retain body heat if a person if going into shock.
- Personal protective equipment (PPE)
It is important when administering first aid to wear PPE. This not only ensures that the injured person and their wounds are treated hygienically, but protects the first aider from picking up any infections that the patient may be carrying, and keep them as clean as possible. Disposable gloves and aprons should be worn when treating an injury, as well as face masks – an indispensable item of PPE to wear in the covid era. By wearing PPE you can be confident that you are administering first aid as hygienically as possible.
