When administering general first aid, your first priority is always safety, followed by a systematic check of the injured person’s responsiveness, airway, and breathing. Every emergency is different, but the same core framework applies whether you’re dealing with a wound, a burn, a seizure, or a cardiac arrest. Knowing the right sequence of actions, and a few critical details for common emergencies, can make the difference between helping and accidentally making things worse.
The Primary Assessment: DRSABCD
Before you touch anyone, check for danger. That means hazards to you, to bystanders, and then to the injured person. You cannot help someone if you become a casualty yourself. Once the scene is safe, check whether the person is conscious by talking to them, touching their hands, or squeezing their shoulder.
If they respond, their airway is open and they’re breathing. Focus on whatever injury brought them down. If they don’t respond, open their mouth and look inside for obstructions, then check for breathing by watching for chest movement and listening near their mouth and nose. No breathing means you need to start CPR immediately and call emergency services. This sequence, often abbreviated as DRSABCD (Danger, Response, Send for help, Airway, Breathing, CPR, Defibrillation), is the universal framework taught in first aid courses worldwide.
Controlling Bleeding
For any wound that’s actively bleeding, apply firm, direct pressure with a clean cloth or bandage. Keep the pressure steady and don’t lift the cloth to check underneath, as this disrupts clot formation. If blood soaks through, add more material on top rather than removing the first layer.
Tourniquets are effective for severe bleeding from an arm or leg, particularly when a major artery has been cut and direct pressure alone isn’t working. They should only be used when pressure dressings have failed or clearly won’t be enough, because a tourniquet stops all circulation to the limb below it. Place it several inches above the wound (not on a joint), tighten until the bleeding stops, and note the time you applied it. Emergency responders need to know how long it’s been on.
Treating Burns
Cool a burn under cool running water for 20 minutes. This is not a rough guideline. Research from a large study published in PLoS One found that 20 minutes of water cooling within the first three hours of a burn injury produced significant benefits for healing and reduced the need for surgical treatment. Beyond 20 to 25 minutes, there’s little additional benefit and a real risk of dropping the person’s body temperature too low, which can cause dangerous complications including disordered clotting.
Use cool water, not ice or ice water. Don’t apply butter, toothpaste, or other home remedies. Cover the burn loosely with a clean, non-stick dressing after cooling. For burns larger than the person’s palm, burns on the face, hands, feet, or genitals, or any burn that looks white or charred, the person needs emergency medical care.
Performing CPR
If someone is unresponsive and not breathing normally, call emergency services and begin chest compressions. For adults, the current American Heart Association guidelines recommend 30 compressions followed by 2 rescue breaths, repeating this cycle continuously. Push hard and fast in the center of the chest, aiming for a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute. Each compression should depress the chest about 2 inches.
If you’re not trained in rescue breathing or uncomfortable doing it, hands-only CPR (continuous compressions without breaths) is still far better than doing nothing. For newborns, the ratio changes to 3 compressions for every 1 breath, though newborn resuscitation is a specialized situation that typically occurs in medical settings.
Responding to Choking
If a person is coughing forcefully, let them keep coughing. That’s the body’s most effective way to clear an airway. Intervene only when they can’t cough, speak, or breathe effectively.
The American Red Cross recommends alternating 5 back blows (delivered between the shoulder blades with the heel of your hand) with 5 abdominal thrusts (the Heimlich maneuver). Continue cycling between the two until the object comes out, the person can breathe or cough forcefully, or they become unconscious. If they go unconscious, lower them to the ground and begin CPR.
Recognizing Shock
Shock happens when the body isn’t getting enough blood flow to its organs, often from significant blood loss, severe allergic reactions, or serious injury. The signs include pale or clammy skin, rapid shallow breathing, confusion, anxiety, and a weak, fast pulse. The person may feel cold to the touch.
Keep the person lying flat with their feet elevated about 12 inches to help blood flow to vital organs. Cover them with a blanket or coat to maintain body temperature. Do not give them anything to drink. If the person has a potential head, neck, back, or leg injury, don’t reposition them unless they’re in immediate danger. If you need to carry someone in shock, keep them as flat as possible with their head down and feet raised.
Recognizing a Stroke
The FAST test takes about 30 seconds and can identify most strokes. Ask the person to smile and check if one side of the face droops. Ask them to raise both arms and watch for one arm drifting downward. Ask them to repeat a simple phrase and listen for slurred or strange speech. If any of these signs are present, call emergency services immediately.
The most effective stroke treatments are only available if the stroke is recognized and treated within 3 hours of the first symptoms, according to the CDC. Note the exact time symptoms started, because this information directly affects which treatments doctors can offer. Do not attempt to drive the person to the hospital yourself.
Managing Seizures
During a seizure, your job is to protect the person from injury, not to stop the seizure itself. Clear hard or sharp objects away from them, cushion their head if possible, and let the seizure run its course. Do not restrain them. Do not put anything in their mouth.
A seizure becomes a medical emergency if it lasts longer than 5 minutes, or if the person remains unresponsive for more than 10 minutes after the seizure ends. Once the seizure stops, roll the person onto their side (the recovery position) to keep their airway clear.
Handling Poisoning
Do not induce vomiting unless poison control specifically tells you to. Some substances cause more damage coming back up than they did going down. If the person vomits on their own, turn their head to the side to prevent choking.
Call Poison Help at 800-222-1222 (in the U.S.) or your regional poison control center. Have the following ready: the person’s age and weight, any medications they take, the suspected substance (with the container or label if possible), how much was ingested, and how long ago exposure happened. Gather pill bottles, packages, or containers to send with the ambulance team.
Sprains, Strains, and Soft Tissue Injuries
For a sprain, strain, or other soft tissue injury, the classic approach is RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. Ice the area for 15 to 20 minutes at a time with a cloth between the ice and skin. Wrap it with an elastic bandage snugly but not so tight it causes numbness or tingling. Elevate the injured area above the level of the heart when possible.
Some sports medicine providers now recommend modified versions like MICE (replacing Rest with Motion) to emphasize gentle movement once the initial pain and swelling subside. Total immobilization for extended periods can slow healing. The key shift is that some careful, pain-free movement in the days after injury tends to promote recovery better than strict rest alone.
Legal Protections for First Aiders
Good Samaritan laws exist in every U.S. state to protect people who voluntarily provide emergency care. These laws won’t prevent someone from filing a lawsuit, but they give you a strong legal defense as long as you meet certain conditions: the situation is a genuine emergency, you act voluntarily and without expecting payment, you get consent from the person (or it’s implied if they’re unconscious), and you don’t act with gross negligence or intentional misconduct.
Ordinary mistakes, like cracking a rib during CPR, are protected under these laws. Gross negligence, meaning a conscious disregard for the person’s safety, is not. If a child needs help and a parent is present, the parent must give consent. If an adult is conscious and refuses help, you should respect that refusal. These protections exist specifically to encourage bystanders to help without fear of legal consequences for honest efforts to save a life.