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Do not hang up until the 911 operator tells you it’s okay to hang up.

FIRST AID KIT

It’s always a good idea to keep a First Aid kit at home, and making one for your family can be a fun project. For the kit itself, you can use a tote bag, backpack, or other container that is clean, roomy, easy to carry, and easy to open. The American College of Emergency Physicians recommends including the following in your First Aid kit:

Band-aids of assorted sizes

Ace bandages

Bandage closures and safety pins

Gauze and adhesive tape

Sharp scissors with rounded tips

Antiseptic wipes

Antibiotic ointment

Hydrogen peroxide

Instant-activating cold packs

Tweezers

Oral medicine syringe (for children)

Prescription medication

Medicines including aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, cough suppressants, antihistamine, decongestants

A page listing the contents of your kit for easy reference, your list of emergency phone numbers, and a list of family members’ allergies and medications.

First Aid on the go: You can make a mini-kit (with Band-Aids, antibiotic ointment, tweezers, and Ace bandages) to take with you on a hike, or when you babysit.

Important Women in First Aid

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

Born in 1820 to a well-off family, Florence Nightingale was not expected to work in the not-then respectable profession of nursing. She grew up studying Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, history, grammar, philosophy, and—over parental objection—mathematics. But in 1837, Florence heard what she called the voice of God telling her that she had a mission in life. Four years later, she discovered that mission—nursing—and abandoned the life of a socialite and mother that was expected of her.

She trained in Germany and Paris, and by 1853 was the superintendent of London’s Institution for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen. After the Crimean War broke out and she heard about the awful conditions for wounded soldiers, she volunteered to go to the war front in Turkey and took 38 women with her as nurses. During her time in the English military hospitals in Turkey, she established new standards for sanitary conditions and supplies; six months after her arrival, the mortality rate had fallen from 60 percent to 2 percent. Her status as the only woman in the wards at night led to her being called “The Lady With the Lamp.”

She eventually became general superintendent of the Female Nursing Establishment of the Military Hospitals of the Army, helped establish the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army, and in 1860 founded the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses.

But in addition to being a nursing pioneer and health care reformer, Florence Nightingale was also a remarkable mathematician. Her innovations in statistical analysis led to her invention of the “polar-area diagram”—better known to us as the pie chart—and revolutionized the use of statistics to analyze disease and mortality.

In 1858 she was elected the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society and she later became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association. In 1907 she became the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit. Although bedridden for years before her death, she continued her work in the field of hospital planning. She died in 1910.

CLARA BARTON

Clara Barton, who was born in 1821 and lived until 1912, was the first president of the American Red Cross. She grew up the youngest of five children and began teaching school at age 15; she later clerked in the U.S. Patent Office. After the Civil War broke out and she learned the wounded were suffering from a lack of medical care, she established a service of supplies for soldiers and worked in army camps and on the front lines, earning her the nickname “Angel of the Battlefield.” For three years she cared for casualties of war in Virginia and South Carolina, and in 1865 President Lincoln appointed her to organize a program to locate men missing in action. She traveled to Europe in 1870 at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War and worked behind the German lines for the International Red Cross. After