First Aid Training: Basic Skills Everyone Should Know

If someone is injured in an accident, it’s essential to stay calm and act quickly. It’s also vital to know how to recognize when you can provide first aid and when to go to urgent care. Some injuries—like minor cuts or burns, scrapes, and bruises—can be treated at home if you know your first aid basics. However, you should always visit urgent care or the emergency room for serious wounds and in situations where someone is suffering from heat stroke, heart attack, severe cold or flu, earaches, sprains, UTIs, or other critical medical conditions.

Basic First Aid Tips

Keep a First Aid Kit Handy

The first and most simple tip is to keep a first aid kit ready at home and another in your car. Always carry one with you if you’re hiking, camping, or exploring in the great Texas outdoors. 

Your first aid kit should contain basic supplies such as: 

• Adhesive bandages 
• Sterile gauze pads
• Medical tape
• Antiseptic wipes 
• Tweezers
• Antiseptic ointment
• Burn ointment
• Moist burn pads
• Sunscreen
• A small pair of scissors
• Pain reliever, such as ibuprofen 
• Medical gloves

You might also want to add a snakebite kit if you are going hiking, hunting, or camping, and an epinephrine pen for allergic reactions.

First Aid Procedure for Minor Wounds

1. Wash your hands and rinse the wound with water.
2. Inspect the wound and remove any dirt, debris, and foreign particles.
3. Use unscented soap to wash around the wound, but avoid getting soap into open skin.
4. Apply a thin layer of antibiotic ointment or petroleum jelly and bandage the wound.
5. Change the covering regularly and rinse with water between bandages if needed.

NOTE: Some people can have a reaction to the neomycin in antibiotic creams, so petroleum jelly is the safest alternative for someone with eczema or sensitive skin.

First Aid Basics for Burns

We’ve all been there—accidentally touching a scorching hot pan or a rack in the oven and burning our fingers. Or dumping boiling water from the tea kettle onto our hands—kitchen accidents are unfortunately very common. So are summer outdoor mishaps like getting a little too close to the firepit while rolling over a log, or being a bit careless around fireworks. 

Burns happen to all of us. Here’s how to care for the minor ones:

• Hold the burned skin under running water or apply a cool, wet cloth. Do not use a cold pack from the freezer. However, if you’ve burned your tongue, you can suck on some ice to help. 
• Cover the burn with a moist burn pad, or wrap it loosely in sterile gauze. 
• Keep pressure off the burn as it heals.
• If your skin blisters, leave it be. Don’t pop it! Blisters help protect the skin. However, blistering is often a sign of a more severe burn, so if your skin blisters, go to urgent care.

First Aid for Fractures and Sprains

• Keep the injured person from moving. Placing weight on the injured area could cause further damage.
• Apply ice to reduce swelling and pain.
• Seek urgent medical attention for possible fractures or dislocations.

Fast and Convenient Walk-In Urgent Care in Texas 

Once you know your basic first aid procedures, you’ll be better prepared to care for yourself and others. However, don’t forget that sometimes professional medical attention is required. Total Point Urgent Care in Ennis, TX is always ready to care for you and your family. If you sprained your ankle at the National Polka Festival, or got too much sun hiking the Bluebonnet Trails and need immediate attention, visit our clinic right off of highway 45. 

Image by Bruno from Pixabay on 6.7.2024 | used under the creative commons license