To go to a straight list of things-to-get, hit "The Kit" and start picking and choosing. It'll be more printer friendly too. It will also provide the latest update date so you can tell when information as evolved or changed. 

Think that I've gotten something wrong, have missed something important, or want to provide support or feedback? Use this simple form! 

For notes on pre-kit information and "periphery" needs, go back to the "Buy a prebuilt" section. They also matter here, so I won't repeat them twice. 

I'm going to be talking about this kit as if it were not only from scratch, but built to be used in outdoor settings away from immediate care needs resources. I'll break it down into sections too. I'll make some recommendations based on what I buy (or similar) along the way, but I have no affiliate links or sponsors for this and don't feel obligated to defer to what I use at all. 

I am also building this based off of the most common injuries in HEMA and their prevention and treatment. No first aid kit is going to offer everything ever, but this will get people through the important stuff. 

Color coding: Red = I think this is a necessity (but, for example, if I highlight a particular Product it doesn't mean I am saying buy that, just either what I use or highlighting the functionality or elements of it), Orange = Recommended generally, Green = Nice to have, don't feel bad nixing it for budget constraints, Blue = It's cool but there's other items in the kit or outside of the kit that can be an alternative and this is more providing some options and awareness of what's out there, Purple = I only recommend this if you have someone certified to understand the use of it and/or you have someone in your school with a specific issue that might need monitoring. 

Let's go on a shopping spree now. 

The container(s): 

I think backpacks are the easiest. A container can be a Lot of things. A waterproof storage tote. An old school bag. An entire rucksack. A high speed tacticool backpack specifically made for medical supplies. A big ole trash bag. (I don't really recommend that last one.) I recommend backpacks have at least 3-4 areas separated, water resistant, have clamshell openings, be brightly colored, have molle straps for adding pouches to, and be 35L or more. This is the one I carry and use as a reference. It's cheap, the tough fabric makes it water resistant and I just spray fabric water resistance spray on it occasionally, and it meets all of those qualifications enough for the price. 

I especially find if you're going the backpack route to have "boo boo" pouches on the outside so people can sneak into the things they really need quickly without taking the whole pack apart. Labeled pouches for some old folk candy, bandaids and ointment, and tape particularly are good for having easy access to for kits that are self-serve. 

I also highly recommend dividers. These also can come in a lot of varieties between soft and hard cases, but I think they are best when they are plastic, clear windows, and color coded. Something like this would cheaply suffice. I use these and they're.. Fine. But the zippers are cheap and so are the bags themselves. But they fit perfectly in the backpack I linked above and they have decent color coding. Green for comfort stuff, blue for cooling-off materials, purple for hand wounds, red for bleeding. Dividers can be as easy as ziplock bags though. 

For items you buy and they have more than you need in the backpack, a simple plastic tote will hold all the extras to refill a bag. Part of the 'expensive' part of building a custom med kit is that you can never easily buy just 'one' of an item. If you want an emergency blanket, you end up buying like 12 of those things at a time. So, don't carry tons of extra ingredients all at once, just throw a few in and refill as needed. 

Vital Signs: 

Wrist blood pressure cuffs are not as accurate at all as those that go on the arm. But, a lot of times you don't have access to the arm with gear, so a wrist blood pressure cuff is what I prefer anyways. You can keep a manual cuff and stethoscope in the kit for more accurate BPs if you want. A simple pulse ox device is great and gives heart rate typically too. A thermometer is tiny and easy to pack away. If we're getting really amazing, an AED is an absolutely life saving device and I only mention it to say they are insanely expensive and they are Not part of standard first aid kits. If you have a facility nearby with one, the cheaper and easier thing to do is to Know where that is and send your fastest person to go get it if it should be needed. Even if you are at a campground, knowing where to go for one can save a life. CPR will get someone through some rough times in the meanwhile. 

Sanitation: 

Alcohol wipes are my recommendation because they clean the surfaces of your equipment after you're done with a patient as well as your hands before starting. Hand sanitizer. Gloves are always recommended -- do not touch peoples' blood without gloves it's an easy safety precaution. You can buy sanitizing spray as well for surfaces, I find the civilian brands aren't nearly as cool as the hospital grade stuff but microban spray or similar fabric spray is very easy to use especially on fabric camp chairs after sweaty folks have been sitting in them getting evaluated all day long. Paper towels are always super helpful and cheap. A trash bag or two (they can just be grocery bags) to help corral bits of bandaid coverings and used gauze is super cheap and needed. 

Dehydration, Hot weather injuries, and Cold weather injuries: 

Usually in HEMA we're dealing with too hot. When things are too cold, that gear keeps people warm, but we'll touch a bit on the cold. A simple emergency blanket is stupid cheap and disposable so give them to the patient outright. It's not a bad idea to slip one in if you are being cautious. The best thing to do if someone is too cold is get them to a warmer spot and keep them there. A car turned on for heat can serve that purpose. 

Dehydration... Water bottles at events are something I think is necessary even when there's water access and even when there are cups people own. I think powdered gatorade or pedialyte (or similar) both zero-sugar for diabetics and regular flavors are so necessary. 

Hot weather... Some of these recs (like water bottles) are for things that clearly won't fit in a backpack. I actually carry a backpack cooler and a medic bag, and I usually ask bigger events for a cooler of ice + a cooler of cold waters if it isn't winter time. Ziplock bags are great to have in a medic bag no matter what. And hey, they can double as trash bags. A cooler with ice + sandwich ziplock bags are going to provide a lot of good cheap ice packs that people can self-serve with. I only recommend this for events though, not day-to-day classes. However, in the summer, I do recommend even for classes having access to something cold. If that's cold water in a cooler, great. If that's a backpack cooler with some ice packs, great. I use fabric ice packs that can be shoved into arm pits, on necks and shoulders, etc. They are easily sanitized with wipes nice for outside classes or small events. The old school grandma ice packs are awesome too. (Don't buy those cheap plastic ones. Link only for reference--literally do not recommend. They Always burst in the freezer. Get solid plastic ones, grandma packs, or flexible medical fabric ones.) I recommend chemical instant cold packs for any event, and a few in a first aid kit for a class kit. (A cautious observer might ask why I thought these were part of what makes a 'garbage' boo boo kit.. and that's because if you need these, you typically need 2-4 Per Person, and sometimes more. We're not putting chemical ice packs on a bruise, go grab some ice from a cooler for that. Buying them in bulk is the way to go, and a first aid kit with 1-2 in there is just padding numbers.) 

(Side note: Bruises are pretty much covered between this and medicine, so I won't discuss those.) 

Old Folks Candy and Comfort Meds and Items: 

Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Naproxen, Aspirin. If you have just those 4 you'll be in really good shape. You can buy the individual packets or leave them in their larger containers. Goody's powder tends to address headaches pretty fast. Anti-inflammatories help with a ton of issues and they are the one thing people tend find a lot of relief when they are available. Benadryl will help with acute allergic reactions or issues. Stomach meds like Pepto Bismol come in chewable tablets, immodium, and senna can relieve more stomach issues. Antiacids and simethicone are helpful, pepcid or prevacid generics can help too. (A note on simethicone: A lot of the OTC versions of this are gel caps and these are Awful. They eventually stick to themselves in a big mess. Avoid gel caps and stick with chalky versions. Same with advil--no gel caps for a kit that's going to be in the hot sun sometimes or often.) Eye drops for that irritated piece-of-sand-in-the-eye issue can flush out mild problems. (Eye washes are also useful to have!) I prefer the kind that come in disposable droplets you can give the whole bit to the patient. Allergy meds are nice to carry, Claritin is the least invasive, works on dogs and people, non-drowsy, affordable, I'd choose that one if you're only carrying one kind. 

Bug spray. Sunscreen. Bug sting relief. Blister cushions or bandaids (work for fingers or toes). Lidocane patches. Anti-chafe cream. Cough drops and dayquil. You can really have a Ton of comfort items in the kit and it can get ridiculous. Sometimes, it's fine to just say 'nope, don't have it.' People will probably survive. There are more medications than I can possibly list here, so these provide some options based on what I have in my kit. (Side note: I won't give some obvious recs because they involve having an active prescription. Epipens are amazing lifesavers.. but if you don't have script you don't have access, so I won't be listing any of that stuff here. They do make an over the counter inhaler for mild asthma attacks, but I don't much recommend that due to the expense to benefit ratio.) 

The thing to keep in mind is, these meds are likely to expire before being fully used. Buy small when possible and don't buy tons. If you're bringing a home bottle with you, ensure people know it's from your cupboard so they can make informed decisions on sanitation and care. Part of inventory management might be sending these home with people who will use them before they expire when renewing. They make individual packets of many medications, so for more self-serve kits having a pouch dedicated to pain meds where people can just grab a packet and go is nice sometimes. I recommend only keeping bigger bottles if someone who is diligent about washing hands before accessing them is going to open the bottles and dispense them. I use a sharpie to write the expiration date in big numbers. 

Bleeds and wounds: 

Bandaids are essential. Sanitation and ensure blood isn't going into places people are touching helps keep everyone safe, and it protects small wounds from all the gross HEMA soup germs that have been cooking all day (or year) in those gloves and jacket. I recommend a few types--small ones, large ones, knuckle-wraps. I REALLY like the Curad Ironman bandaids with antibacterial ointment impregnated into the fabric. No fussing around with ointment, just plop it on and go. They stick to sweaty hands well (you still have to dry the skin folks, this is why I think paper towels are really good for cheap quick things like that). For people that will continue to sweat, you can reinforce a bandaid with some medical tape. Gauze pads are good to have around. They make sensitive paper tape as well as regular tape--paper tape isn't very sticky but if someone has an adhesive allergy it might be all you can use on them. You can opt for Koban which sticks to itself as well and is an awesome multi-use item. You can buy antibiotic ointment, I also think this is best in small self-serve packets vs a large tube. (Side note: ointments don't tend to make wounds heal faster despite neosporin advertising, and people can have skin allergies to those antibiotics. Vaseline literally works just as well in that department and they make individual packets for that too and its far more versatile.) 

Gauze rolls are useful and cheap. Ace wraps can stabilize joints or "hold" gauze wrapping in place. I use wound wash spray on injuries before addressing them. Antiseptic wipes can also be used, but I find they just don't clean as easily as wound wash spray. Butterfly bandages will help keep wounds closed. 

Bleedstop is a powder that you sprinkle on a wound that refuses to stop bleeding. This can happen with people on blood thinners and other coagulation issues, or a particularly bad wound. They also make bleedstop impregnated into bandages. Superglue will close wounds up. I use zip-tie wound closing devices on particularly nasty wounds to help keep the wound in the spot I want before supergluing and letting it cure. These items are great for not band-aid level cuts and wounds. 

An Israeli bandage is one of the best trauma-bleed items you can stick in a bleed kit. It can turn into a (poor man's) tourniquet in a pinch, and the pressure can be customized or can assist in holding pressure on a wound. If I were going to stick a single item into an emergency bleed it, it'd be this one. A tourniquet is, of course, something every kit has and thankfully never uses. I recommend a reputable brand like Rhino Rescue--don't just buy the Amazon special on these. They last Forever. Pay the extra few bucks here. Chest seals are items that I feel very few people know how to use or when to apply them, but they usually come in prebuilt trauma kits and they're worth mentioning. I find splints are often included in these trauma kits, and I can't say I've used one but once.. but we could also tape someone's sidesword to their leg. Wrist, ankle, and knee braces are options for injuries too. 

Fingers: 

Get some finger splints. They're great, they're cheap, they stabilize an injury. I have a few different kinds--ones that encapsulate the nail if someone is going back to fight + gel caps to give cushioning underneath it, and the regular ole metal splints. Stick + tape, or another finger + tape also works. I also keep some Spes plastic caps in my bag because once someone's fingertip has been injured I think it's important to shove one of those into their glove to protect it further. I usually stick the bandaids and other boo-boo-bleeding injuries in with fingers and put all the bigger trauma stuff in its own section. 

Instruments and tools: 

Medical scissors. Tweezers. A simple sling. A pen light. A first aid manual. A lot of these come with pre-built kits, so they're pretty easy to obtain. I like sticking these to the outside of bags for easy grabbing, or in the same spot your gauze rolls are. 

This is an ever-evolving list, so occasionally I will check back in and update this! I'll put the latest update date at the top each time.