Survival First Aid Kit List | 28 Essentials

Survival first aid kit contents organized on concrete floor.

This survival first aid kit list covers essential lifesaving gear with an accompanying guide and PDF checklist.

BY SEAN GOLD, UPDATED:

We independently review everything we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Disclosure»

First aid kits are a cornerstone of preparedness. Keeping you and yours healthy and intact is a great start to responding to any situation when SHTF. First aid kits can be the basic store-bought variety or a comprehensive kit that you are fully trained on how to use. They keep you patched up and healthy through any sort of injury or sickness. Survival first aid kits do this with even fewer external resources.

When disasters and emergencies strike, problems don’t solve themselves. If you can’t get to the emergency room, urgent care, or doctor’s office, do you have the equipment, knowledge, and training to keep you and your family healthy and alive?

While training and practice are key to all kits, it is especially important with this kit because some of the more involved tools can be dangerous when used improperly. An untrained prepper with an involved first aid kit is just an illusion of safety and security.

Contents (Jump to a Section)

Survival First Aid Kit List

Our basic first aid checklist is meant for home use. A smaller kit would be better when included in bug-out bags, car kits, or get-home bags. Start with the foundation level if you are starting from scratch, and add modules based on your local threats.

Essentials

These should be the cornerstone of your kit and included in any first aid kit:

  • Budget First Aid Kit: M2 Basics First Aid Kit – Bare bones plastic case kit that usually gets the job done.
  • Upgrade First Aid Kit: Standard MyFak – A robust IFAK that gives you all the basics with room to expand.

– or –

Medications

Don’t skip over-the-counter and prescription medicine for your kit. Even basic supplies like ibuprofen can be much more important in emergency and survival situations. Prescription medicine and antibiotics can be harder and more expensive to store for emergencies, but they have become more accessible lately due to a few online suppliers.

Trauma

Dealing with traumatic injuries can take more than just basic first-aid knowledge. Since knowledge is power, it is always a good idea to seek out more training once you have basic CPR and first aid under your belt.

Trauma supplies for a first aid kit organized on a black mat.
Many trauma supplies need additional training to be useful. (Credit: Sean Gold)

Miscellaneous

Rounding out the basics includes a way to keep all of your gear together with a bag or case, and a comprehensive first aid manual for quick reference. You’ll want to be sure your first aid kit has your contact list as well, so it is easy to find for anyone accessing the kit.

Suggested Additions

This gear may not be essential by definition, but adding any of these to your FAK will improve your kit’s versatility for even more situations.

Situation-Specific Supplies

Essentials and suggested additions have been covered, so this is the area where you will find everything else that could be useful to have on you in a medical emergency. These extra supplies will help you in very specific situations, are less versatile, and may take up a lot of space. Even still, they could be the difference makers in an emergency, so it could pay off to consider adding these.

Survival First Aid Kit Checklist

A perfect first aid kit doesn’t exist- what is right for you depends on your situation, training, and risk tolerance. That said, we have as close to a perfect starting point for you: our definitive FAK checklist.

Our checklist is available as both a PDF download and as a Google Sheets/Excel file where you can check off items yourself, and even add and subtract items from the checklist.

Survival First Aid Kit Checklist.

Printable PDF Checklist

If you are looking for the simplest way to print and use the checklist above, download our printable PDF version. It is one page long on 8.5″ x 11″ paper if you reduce the margins to 0.5″. This FAK PDF makes gathering and tracking your FAK gear extremely easy. Once you open the first aid kit PDF checklist in your browser, you can either print it directly or save it through your browser.

Printable PDF Checklist

Excel / Google Sheets Checklist

If you are looking for a comprehensive way to track your EDC loadout, open our Excel / Google Sheets version. The sheet is shareable, and you just need to copy it to your own Google Sheets account or download it to Excel to edit it. We also keep the best-reviewed item for each category linked to simplify shopping for any equipment you may find yourself missing.

Excel / Sheets Checklist

First Aid Classes

Gear isn’t enough for most emergency kits, but training is crucial for first aid and medical emergencies. Some of the top classes you can take to improve your first aid, traumatic injury, and medical emergency response skills include:

  • Standard First Aid/CPR
  • Basic Life Support CPR/AED
  • Stop the Bleed
  • Dental First Aid
  • Wilderness First Responder (WFR)
  • Combat Lifesaver (CLS – Military)
  • Wilderness Advanced First Aid (WAFA)

Even with training, you need to be familiar with the gear you have. Train with sutures, see how fast you can apply a tourniquet, and cycle through consumable supplies regularly.

The Next Step

A first aid kit is a common kit that can help you every day or in an emergency. Here are all the survival kits we’ve documented:

Every Survival Kit List

See more of our expert-written guides, resources, and reviews in your search results – add TruePrepper as a preferred source.

Prepping Your Way

No judgement and no imperatives. Prepare the way you want to with the trusted source millions of modern preppers have relied on.

Our newsletter fires out every Monday where you can expect:
  • Practical prepping guides and tips
  • Thorough survival gear reviews
  • Noticeably absent spam and popups
  • < 0.4% of people unsubscribe
Thanks for subscribing, supporting our cause, and improving your own resilience.
Survival First Aid Kit