Hockey First Aid Kit Contents List

What should be in a hockey first aid kit?

Hockey is a dangerous sport, so ensuring you have everything you need in your hockey first aid kit is a vital part of keeping your hockey team safe, helping you respond to emergencies and treat injuries in a safe and timely way. 
Hockey coaches and sports facility managers need to take their duty of care seriously to ensure they comply with UK health and safety guidelines such as the UK’s Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. We discuss the importance of your hockey first aid kit on our blog and take you through the most important sports first aid kit essentials.

This article will take you through everything a first aid kit that caters specifically to hockey should contain and the reasons why these items are important.

You’ll find a handy downloadable hockey first aid kit checklist that you can use regularly to help stay on top of your first aid contents and know what you are running low on.

Common Risks While Playing Hockey

Hockey is a physically demanding, fast-paced, contact sport that comes with its fair share of risks. The ball itself, weighing between 150-165g, is hard and dense and presents a risk when it comes into contact with players. Other common safety incidents and hockey injuries are caused by trips, slips, falls, and collisions between players or equipment. 

The most commonly reported hockey injuries include:

• Cuts
• Scrapes
• Bruises
• Sprains
• Strains
• Broken or fractured bones

Having access to a well-stocked sports first aid kit that contains premium supplies is an essential part of keeping your team safe in the event of an injury, and for hockey specifically, we have developed an essential hockey first aid kit that contains everything needed to treat common hockey injuries, informed by guidance from England Hockey and GB Hockey

Essential Hockey First Aid Kit Contents

If you’re a coach, sports medic, physiotherapist, or a qualified first aider, you’ll know that having access to a selection of first aid kit supplies is essential. A premium-quality first aid kit stocked with hockey injury basics is a vital part of providing safe, effective first aid care in an emergency and could even save a life.

As a trusted medical supplier to the sports industry, we understand the importance of quality and efficiency when it comes to first aid. For this reason, we have developed a professional-grade, top-quality Hockey First Aid Kit that contains everything you’ll need for hockey-specific first aid treatment in one compact carry bag. This kit is ideal for field hockey and ice hockey teams playing at home or away. 

Below, we break down and explain every piece of first aid equipment included to give you a good idea of their uses and importance. Every hockey team should have a high-quality first aid kit on hand, just in case.

Alcohol-Free Wipes

Clean cuts and wounds safely before dressing with alcohol-free wipes to reduce infection. Sterile, disposable and gentle on the skin.

Bandages  

Bandages come in a range of shapes, sizes and styles, making them essential and highly versatile pieces of first aid equipment. Ensure you have a choice of the following bandages to treat hockey injuries.

Cohesive Bandages are an essential item for providing compression and support to injuries and swollen areas with ease. Latex-free, skin-friendly and easy to apply and remove, our Hockey First Aid Kit includes two sizes: 5cm x 4.5m and 7.5cm x 4.5m 

Triangular bandages are most often used to support an injured limb as a sling, as well as to secure wound dressings in place safely.

Using an elasticated tubular bandage to cover dressings and hold them secure improves patient comfort and speeds up the application process, removing the need for safety pins or tapes. 

Disposable Nitrile Gloves (in pairs)

Disposable gloves are an essential first aid item. Putting a barrier between the first aider’s and the casualty’s bodily fluids protects from infection and viral transmission. 

All quality first aid kits should stock nitrile disposable gloves because they have been developed to be puncture-proof, offering increased protection and durability. 

Eye and Wound Wash

Handy 20ml eye and wound wash pods containing sterile saline solution to clean out eyes, cuts, and wounds before applying a dressing or bandage. Ideal for cleaning areas where the skin has been cut deeply. 

In the event that an eye has been injured, experts recommend applying eyewash immediately to flush out any contaminants, protecting the eye from further damage. 

Foil Blanket

Foil blankets are a must-have first aid item, especially when weather conditions are poor. Wrap this lightweight reflective blanket around a casualty to reduce shock symptoms and retain their body heat. Protecting a casualty from exposure and keeping them warm will help to speed up their recovery. 

Our foil blanket is coated on both sides and folds up to fit neatly inside our sports first aid kit, ready for use.

Instant Icepacks

Cold treatment is hugely effective in injury treatment, especially for the most common types of hockey injuries. Use cold therapy to manage swelling and muscle pain caused during a hockey game.

Applying an instant icepack to an injured area quickly helps to reduce swelling, lessen pain symptoms and can even reduce the cell damage in the area. No need for access to a freezer. These packs are designed to work through an endothermic reaction that cools instantly when agitated for convenience.

Resusciade Face Shield

In the event of a cardiac arrest during a hockey game or training session, a qualified first aider will need to provide CPR treatment immediately. To reduce the risk of infection and viral transmission, place a disposable resusciade face shield over the casualty’s mouth and nose to create a protective barrier for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This helps to protect both parties from cross-contamination during this potentially life-saving first aid procedure.

Scissors

Ensure that you have the right tools to provide effective first aid treatment quickly and safely. Use medical-grade blunt-ended scissors to cut dressings, bandages, and tape to size, as well as cut through clothing or seatbelts without the risk of puncturing a casualty’s skin.

Wound Closure Strips (Sutures)

Wound closure strips (sometimes called sutures) are strong, highly adherent nylon strips that can be applied to the skin to hold a wound closed as it heals, effectively preventing a cut from re-opening when a hockey player returns to the game.

Wound Dressings

Wound dressings are an essential protective measure to treat new and healing wounds. A protective, clean layer over broken skin minimises the risk of further damage and allows the body to focus on healing. 

Dressings protect wounds from further damage by keeping them in a clean environment minimising bacterial contamination. Wounds are a commonly reported hockey injury that can keep a player away from the pitch for extended periods if they don’t heal well. 

Choose an adhesive wound dressing to quickly secure protection over a wound too large to be covered by a plaster. Its adhesive edge allows it to remain in place without a bandage or tape for quick, easy wound dressing.
Absorbent wound dressing pads are versatile and come in a range of sizes to cater to different shapes and sizes of wounds and injuries. Our hockey first aid kit includes either medium or large wound dressings and eye pad dressings that help absorb blood and exudate as a wound heals and forms a protective, padded layer over the injury.

Need a hockey first aid kit for a sports medic or physio?

Are you taking care of a high-level competitive hockey or ice hockey team? It’s worth investing in an even better stocked, highly specialised sports medical kit to take care of your team. Ensure you have a broader range of high-quality first aid equipment to treat injuries caused through playing hockey.

Our professional-quality sports medical kit has been put together by sports injury experts, combining the ideal pitchside kit with a physiotherapist kit. This kit includes all of the first aid products in our sports first aid kit, with larger quantities of the essentials, as well as these additional products to improve your first aid provisions:

• Additional wound dressings, 
• More EAB bandages
• Extra low adherent dressings
• Fabric Strapping
• Antiseptic Cream
• Hand sanitiser
• A trigger spray bottle

Coaching a junior hockey team?

Hockey is a commonly played sport in school PE classes, and there are many junior-level hockey teams across the country. Minors are at equal (if not higher) risk of injury and incident during a hockey game or training sessions. Our junior sports team first aid kit contents have been specially selected to cater to all your younger hockey team’s first aid needs. Its contents includes the most commonly used and important items of a standard sports first aid kit, with 70 pieces of equipment in a compact, lightweight, waterproof nylon kit bag.

Hockey First Aid Kit Contents Checklist

Download and print out this hockey first aid kit contents checklist to ensure your first aid supplies are stocked up, and in-date and you’re ready for a match.