Last weekend I took the Wilderness First Aid class from WMI/NOLS. This is the first medical class I have taken since finishing paramedic school in 2009 and deciding to move back into research. The class was great, and I picked up a few tricks even with the thousands of hours of training and years of experience in emergency medicine.
This class was good motivation to restructure my wilderness medical kit into three. I had one kit that was used for a wide variety of activities, ranging from backpacking to rock climbing. This lead to a kit that was overbuilt for some activities like lightweight backpacking, and not enough for cragging with a bunch of friends. I have been thinking for a while of restructuring into two kits but it hasn't been a real priority until recently.
So I want to talk about kits, and why I think it is a really important item, and my thoughts on being prepared in the woods. First off, if you don't have any training, or it lacked hands on time, or it has been a while, get some training. While I have a high level of training I haven't practiced in a long time, and I felt rusty at the class. Take a class, and make sure it has a hands on component.
Through work I had to take an AHA first aid class which lacked hands on. This was not helpful in my opinion. For anyone to actually do something useful, especially where EMS is not readily available, you have to have some hands on time with skills. This is how EMT classes work, you spend hours doing patient assessments, splinting, back boarding, and setting up oxygen in addition to learning the medicine. I liked how the NOLS WFA class followed idea this with a heavy focus on assessment and scenarios.
Through this training you will better appreciate what to put in a kit. However, I feel like a medical kit for wilderness adventure will always change. You will learn new things, especially if you take more classes, or through experience you will figure out some things work better for you than others. Even so I would recommend making a gear list, and keeping it up to date with how you want a kit setup. I use github as a way of tracking versions so I can easily go back and see previous setups if I want. However you do it though, this list is important. It allows you to periodically restock your kit, because hopefully you aren't using the big items in it often.
As to the contents themselves you need to evaluate the activities you do, what types of groups you travel with, your level of skill, and also what you feel comfortable providing to a stranger in distress. These are all personal questions so there is no one size fits all kit. Though many of the kits available through NOLS or adventure medical can be a good starting place.
I know some people skip carrying medical supplies, or carry just a few bandaids and pain killers. To me this seems irresponsible in the wilderness. While major things are uncommon, when they do happen having the right items can make a difference in outcomes. Everything is a tradeoff however. More medical supplies that may never get used means more weight. On a long backpacking trip that is an issue. So optimizing for light weight matters a lot. But day hiking you can think of it as training weight, especially if it isn't a major objective. The way I broke it down is into 3 kits, one for trail running and fast packing, another for general backpacking, and a third as my general use kit. The general backpacking is a fairly comprehensive kit, though it is still reasonably light, whereas my general kit is suitable in situations where I might have a number of people in my group. This gives me three options based on the activity. You might find that more than 3 kits suits you, or maybe 2.
My kit lists are available for viewing at https://github.com/spowers42/gear-lists I hope they prove useful as an idea on how to put together a kit.
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