Most of our FAKs are designed around the situations we anticipate encountering. At least that is why so many seem to center around home situation boo-boos, with an emphasis on pain/headache relief and band-aid type dressings.

A great deal of my experience has been in the treatment of trauma, especially lower limb fractures and sprains (folks who have merely fractured an arm evidently self-ambulate) and that works better with a kit that has a lot of elastic bandages and items that can become splints.

Diagnosis and complete, hopefully competent patient survey is really critical in most of these trauma cases. You often see an obvious injury, with the bone protruding from the skin, but there are often, if not usually, other injuries which are less evident, like spinal damage and fracture.

FAKs should not only include the obvious sterile dressings, et al., in the clearly marked FAK, but also those items in the group which can utilized in a first aid capacity. Trekking poles can be the foundation of a perfectly adequate lower leg splint, for instance. The pliers on my multitool will remove cactus spines quite well. The red bandanna in my right left pocket can hold a dressing in place (and did so just a couple of months ago when the institutional kit with which I was working completely lacked any sort of wrapping items).

I like to carry about four band aids in my wallet. Most of the time the situation does not exceed the boo-boo level and you can pat the victim on the back, apply the band aid, and allow them to return to the job at hand (after you are satisfied that there is nothing more serious involved).