The basic first aid requirements for a weekend camping trip will be significantly different to what’s required for an enforced survival exercise. If you believe such an experience is not likely to happen to you, in March 2011 the people of Fukushima in Northern Japan weren’t expecting an earthquake then a tsunami then radiation poisoning

You can buy a simple medical kit at any chemist; I strongly advise that you learn how to administer basic first aid as well as the more life-threatening emergencies.

Most mistakes happen when people are mentally and physically drained.

Two points of particular note:

- common sense will prevent many injuries or wounds from happening in the first place. Easier said than done I will admit, but if you swing a sharp, miss what you’re aiming at and implant the blade in your toes or foot, you’ll wish you’d taken one or two practice swings first.

- you need to avoid at all costs the type of injury that your level of ability cannot deal with.

Within your group it is truly worth learning each other’s skills. You don’t want the only person with any medical knowledge being the one in the coma as the result of an accident. As there will not be any TV to watch in your camp, share the knowledge on each subject so everybody has a chance to find out how to tie bowlines and clove hitches, gut fish, skin deer or rabbits, use a compass reliably, light fires quickly without matches and stitch a wound.

If you’ve got only a little knowledge on First Aid, begin by getting an instructional DVD course to watch a few times so you become familiar with the essentials.

First Aid Training: A Comprehensive Guide [DVD] 2011

At all costs avoid finding yourself in a situation where you’ve got to perform a life saving procedure on your own child and you wish you’d watched the video! It is that important!

….or simply go to Amazon and search for First Aid Kit so you can begin to build a skill that’s really handy.

In the past 30 years Graeme has hacked his way through the Borneo jungle with Punan nomads, stayed in the Kelabit longhouses, hunted with blowpipes, sailed the seas off Indonesia with modern-day pirates, climbed volcanoes in Java, kayaked the northern lakes of Minnesota and fished with the Portuguese sardine fleets. Having settled for the time being in West Sussex, he is now faced with a very real challenge – surviving the economic depression that will impact everyone.

The survivalinstincts website his contribution is to help as many families build up their outdoor and other necessary survival skills as best he can.

Watch First Aid clips from YouTube’s SurvivalTips888: