First Aid teaches you how to help when someone gets hurt. You'll learn what to do in serious emergencies and how to treat everyday injuries. Knowing these skills helps you stay calm and be useful.
Why it's worth it
Most emergencies happen when no doctor is around, and the first person to help can make a huge difference. You'll learn what to do first, how to help in the most serious hurry cases, and how to treat everyday cuts, burns, and stings. Calm, prepared kids really do help, and these are skills you'll keep building in a troop.
Start this week
- Watch the Protect Yourself Rules video with your parent or guardian and talk about it.
- Find the first-aid kit in your home or car and look at what's inside.
- Practice saying your home address and what you'd tell a 911 dispatcher.
Stay safe
- Practice choking and CPR steps on a training dummy or by acting them out, never with real force on a person.
- Always protect yourself first: check the scene and use gloves if there's blood.
Requirements · 7
Every official requirement and part, numbered to match Scouting America, in plain language. Sign off against the official wording (opens in a new tab).
- Requirement 1
With permission from a parent or legal guardian, watch the Arrow of Light Protect Yourself Rules video
Tip: Watch the video with a parent or guardian and talk about the rules together.
- Requirement 2
Explain what to do if you come across someone who needs first aid
Tip: Learn the steps: check the scene is safe, call for help, then help the person if you can.
For example: First, check that the scene is safe for you. Then check the person, call or send someone to call 911, and give help you've been trained for. Wear gloves if there's blood, and stay with them until help arrives.
- Requirement 3
Show what to do in these hurry cases: serious bleeding, sudden cardiac arrest or heart attack, stopped breathing, stroke, and poisoning
Tip: Practice each hurry case with a buddy and an adult. Act out calling 911 and what you would say.
For example: Hurry cases: for heavy bleeding, press hard with a clean cloth. For someone not breathing or whose heart has stopped, call 911 and get an AED. For stroke, use FAST: Face, Arms, Speech, Time to call. For poisoning, call Poison Help.
- Requirement 4
Show how to help someone who is choking
Tip: Practice the choking steps on a training dummy or by acting it out, never with real force on a person.
- Requirement 5
Show how to treat for shock
Tip: Learn the signs of shock and practice keeping someone warm and calm.
For example: Shock can happen after any serious injury. Signs include pale or clammy skin, weakness, and confusion. Have the person lie down, keep them warm with a jacket or blanket, keep them calm, and call for help.
- Requirement 6
Show how to treat cuts and scratches, burns and scalds, insect and animal bites and stings, and nosebleeds
Tip: Practice with bandages, cool water for burns, and the right way to pinch a nose.
For example: Nosebleed: sit up, lean forward, and pinch the soft part of the nose for 10 minutes. Small burn: cool running water for several minutes. Bee sting: scrape the stinger out and use a cold pack.
- Requirement 7
Put together a personal first-aid kit and show how to use each item in it properly
Tip: Pack a small kit with bandages, gauze, gloves, and tape. Explain what each item is for.
For example: A small kit might have adhesive bandages, gauze pads, tape, gloves, antiseptic wipes, moleskin, and a small card with emergency numbers. Show your patrol what each item is for.
Places to visit
Ask an adult to set it up, and go with your family, den, patrol, or crew.
A fire station or EMS station
Paramedics and EMTs can show you their ambulance, AED, and first-aid supplies, and share what they do first at an emergency.
How: Have your den leader call the station's non-emergency number and ask if an EMT can do a short demo for your patrol.
Talk about it together
- What would be the first thing you'd do if you found someone hurt?
- Which hurry case would be hardest to stay calm for, and how can you prepare?
- Who are the trusted adults you can go to if something doesn't feel right?
- How does knowing first aid change how you feel about camping or hiking?
- What first-aid skill do you want to learn more about?
Helpful reads
- Cub Scouts: a guide for families, How Cub Scout ranks and adventures work from kindergarten through fifth grade, what an adult partner does, and how to keep it fun at meetings and at home., Families · Leaders · 4 min read
- From Arrow of Light to a troop, What changes when you join a Scouts BSA troop, how to visit and choose one, good questions to ask, and how to make your first year a great one., Youth · Families · 4 min read
For leaders & parents
- Invite a nurse, EMT, or Red Cross instructor to teach hands-on skills.
- Use role-play scenarios so scouts practice staying calm.
People & places that can help
- American Red Cross (opens in a new tab) — First aid classes and tips for youth.
- American Heart Association (opens in a new tab) — CPR and choking information.
- Local fire department or EMS — May visit to show emergency skills.
- Poison Control (opens in a new tab) — What to do if someone swallows or touches something poisonous.
- Stop the Bleed (opens in a new tab) — How people learn to help someone with serious bleeding.
- KidsHealth for Kids (opens in a new tab) — Kid-friendly first-aid articles about cuts, burns, and stings.
Pairs well with
Counts toward
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Into this? Explore more
Tips, examples, and questions are ideas from experienced leaders, not extra requirements. Your unit leader or counselor decides when a requirement is complete.