Emergency Preparedness - First Aid

Back to Emergency Preparedness, in the lesson I heard on Sunday first aid was mentioned as a part of emergency preparedness and that was something that I hadn't considered before but a very good point. In a mass emergency there will be people injured, you may even be injured yourself and knowledge of first aid will come in very handy.
I don't know about you but I've had a lot of first aid training over the years, in every swimming class I ever took, in health classes in school, and every year when we had girls camp. If you're like me you also don't necessarily remember all of that good training so here are some things to refresh us all.
First off, there is training available through the American Red Cross; they offer training in first aid, CPR, AED(Automated External Defibrillator), disaster education, things to know for babysitting, life guarding, etc. Also a note: even if you've been certified for something like CPR in the past you may need to certify again, I believe that you need to recertify every two years.
The Mayo Clinic has a website with instructions on the first aid for many injuries/ailments, including shock. If you only learn first aid for a few things make sure you learn about shock, if a person is injured or sick there is also always the danger of them going into shock.
Some other standard first aid that you should know is how to care for: broken bones, severe bleading, how to make a splint/sling/bandage, heat stroke etc., hypothermia, and choking.
Besides knowing first aid it would be a good idea to have some kind of first aid guide to look to, I found several options on amazon, and I'm sure they could be easily found else where. Another very important thing to have is a first aid kit, I would keep a stocked first aid kit in your home, in your car(s) and even have small kits to carry around in a purse etc. You can find any number of resources for first aid kits. The Red Cross recommends that you include these items in your first aid kits:

• 2 absorbent compress dressings (5 x 9 inches)
• 25 adhesive bandages (assorted sizes)
• 1 adhesive cloth tape (10 yards x 1 inch)
• 5 antibiotic ointment packets (approximately 1 gram)
• 5 antiseptic wipe packets
• 2 packets of aspirin (81 mg each)
• 1 blanket (space blanket)
• 1 breathing barrier (with one-way valve)
• 1 instant cold compress
• 2 pair of nonlatex gloves (size: large)
• 2 hydrocortisone ointment packets (approximately 1 gram each)
• Scissors
• 1 roller bandage (3 inches wide)
• 1 roller bandage (4 inches wide)
• 5 sterile gauze pads (3 x 3 inches)
• 5 sterile gauze pads (4 x 4 inches)
• Oral thermometer (non-mercury/nonglass)
• 2 triangular bandages
• Tweezers
• First aid instruction booklet

I hope that these links and information help and that you look into them deeper on your own.
Also an addition about food storage or family home storage as it seems to be called now, I didn't notice this link at providentliving.org; there's more information there including a pamphlet available in several different languages.