Thinking about getting a First Aid Kit for your Boat or RV? Good!

Having a top quality First Aid for your boat or RV is very important, and a piece of safety gear that many people over look.

Through our First Aid, CPR and AED training programs we see all kinds of first aid kits in the field; some good, and some really, really bad. Take for instance one kit we found on a contractors truck that had one used bloody 4×4 gauze pad, or another that was so old that all the the products contained in the kit had expired in 2000. We rarely see top quality First Aid or Trauma Kits on Boats or in RVs, most of the kits we see are $9.99 specials from the hardware store.

…When we boat or camp often the idea to to get away from it all comes with a certain acceptable risk…

” The worst time to plan for an emergency is in the middle of one!” 

You could find yourself outside of timely advanced emergency medical care. There are no EMTs in the middle of the Puget Sound, or in the remote wilderness so being prepared to care for the sick and injured is a top priority until help can arrive.

Getting a First Aid Kit for your Boat or RV that is stocked with the essentials is the easy part.

The best First Aid Kit in the world will not be of much use without knowing how to use the kit effectively. It’s one thing to treat scrapes and little cuts, but quite another when talking about more serious soft tissue injuries, broken bones and other major first aid situations. We highly recommend that you and your recreational family and friends attend a First Aid, CPR and AED class.

If you are looking for a starting point for a really good first aid kit, here is a checklist.

What class is right for you and what kit do you need?

It really depends on where you go, and access to EMS services. If you are the adventurous type spring for the First Responder Kit, day camping then a basic kit will suffice.

Boaters have very unique response needs in that even if you can see the shore response will be at least 30 minutes, unless you are very near a dock facility with fast response time by EMS. Regardless, a person suffering a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) will need treatment within 10 minutes, or the survival rate drops to almost zero. The only effective treatment of SCA is the deployment and use of an AED (Automated External Defibrillator), like the Heartsine.

Putting it all together

Having the right equipment is the start, its like buying a new GPS, or Charts for your boat, if you don’t take the time to learn how to use them, they aren’t much use when response time is critical; “The worst time to plan for an emergency is in the middle of one!” And failure to plan is planning to fail.

Every minute that passes for a person suffering from a Sudden Cardiac Arrest will loose another 10% chance of survival without proper CPR and AED deployment. The skills required to administer life saving techniques can be acquired in as little as 2-hours, or a full Boater centric first aid class is only an investment of 8 hours and could turn out to be the best investment of time you will ever spend when it is you responding in a life threatening medical emergency, such as Heart Attack or Sudden Cardiac Arrest.           

If you would like to take an individual First Aid Class, or you want to involve your entire Boating and Camping group, please visit the Northwest Response class request page to set up a class, or visit our open enrollment schedule.