Nurse’s full first aid kit

Press, 9 December 1982, Page 26

Nurse’s full first aid kit

A course in emergency first aid convinced a Christchurch nurse that there was a need for a "proper” first aid kit. “People expect anyone who is even vaguely medical to be able to. cope with first aid emergencies.” said Mrs Judy Fairservice, a registered nurse. “But first aid extends only as far as the equipment available,” she said. She went in search of a suitable kit, but found those available in chemists’ shops unsuitable. “They are all right for little cuts and scratches, but for anything bigger than that, they are pretty terrible," she says. So, in her spare time, in the last year, she developed her own first aid bag. — a nylon, waterproof pack that can be carried by hand or slung over one’s back. It contains 28 items, enough to treat victims of a car crash or any serious accident, and enough dressings to last for three weeks. There are numerous sterile dressings and bandages, eye pads, burns dressings, gauze squares and a small plastic bowl to put sterile solution in, a bottle of boiled water, a thermometer, splinter forceps, sharp scissors, two slings, antiseptic lotion and cream, tongue depressers, pain-relief tablets, Steri-strip skin closures, orange sticks, and an optional airway. Apart from the first aid kits sold in chemists’ shops, several local organisations produce extended first aid packs, with many — but not all — of these items in them. Mrs Fairservice found the waterproof nylon carry bag very valuable. She sewed the first bag herself, but after that, she contracted a commercial bagmaker. Mrs Fairservice said there was such a demand from nursing and medical friends for the first aid bags, she started producing them in bulk, and selling them for $45 each. At first, the demand was mostly from professionals but now she is selling them to friends who have no special nursing or medical training. Included in each bag is a list of instructions about how to use each item, aimed at people who have little or no

knowledge of first aid. “It was originally intended for people like myself who are expected to carry a

proper first aid pack in the car, and have one in the home. But it is designed for anyone to use. really," she says.

Mrs Fairservice had to put her own pack to good use not long ago when a neighbour injured himself badly when he fell from a tree.