Workplace First Aid Needs Assessment: How to Size and Stock Kits (2026 Guide)

How do you run a workplace first aid needs assessment?

Published August 16, 2026

Short answer: A workplace first aid needs assessment is the exercise OSHA's own guidance describes: anticipate the injuries your work can reasonably produce, read your OSHA 300 and 301 logs for the injuries it actually has produced, consult local emergency responders where the needs are unusual, and size the kit — class, quantity, placement, add-on modules — to that evidence. The duty it serves is 29 CFR 1910.151(b), which requires first aid supplies that are "adequate" for your workplace, and adequacy can only be judged against an assessment. Done once and revisited periodically, it converts a catalog purchase into a defensible program.

Where the method comes from: Appendix A, not folklore

The non-mandatory Appendix A to 1910.151 is short, and its method is concrete. It points to ANSI/ISEA Z308.1 as an example of the minimal contents of a generic kit, then tells employers with larger operations, multiple operations at one location, or unique or changing first-aid needs to go beyond it: use the OSHA 300 log, the 301 incident reports, or other records to identify the workplace's specific problems; consult the local fire and rescue service, an appropriate medical professional, or the local emergency room where that helps; and assess the worksite's needs periodically, augmenting the kit appropriately. It adds one hard duty on top of the guidance: where employees may be exposed to blood or other potentially infectious materials while giving first aid, 29 CFR 1910.1030(d)(3) requires appropriate personal protective equipment — gloves, gowns, face shields, masks, eye protection. The regulatory frame around all of this lives in our OSHA first aid kit requirements explainer.

The five-step assessment

1. Inventory the hazards by task, not by room. Walk the work as it is actually done and list what each task can do to a person: lacerations at the saw, burns at the fryer, splash at the dip tank, struck-by in the yard. A task-based list catches the injuries a floor-plan walk misses — the maintenance job done twice a year is still a hazard.
2. Read the injury history you already keep. Pull the OSHA 300 log and 301 reports for the last few years, plus near-miss records if you keep them. Recurring entries are the assessment's strongest evidence: a log full of hand lacerations argues for more dressings and gloves than any minimum list, exactly the augmentation Appendix A describes.
3. Set the class baseline. Map the setting to an ANSI/ISEA Z308.1 class: Class A for the common-injury profile of lower-risk work, Class B — higher quantities plus a splint and a tourniquet — for higher-risk environments, larger crews, and remote sites. The mapping logic is worked through in our ANSI Class A vs Class B first aid kits guide, and the first aid kit selector runs it interactively from five inputs.
4. Add the hazard modules the class minimum does not carry. The class fill is a floor, not a ceiling — the table below maps each hazard the inventory surfaced to the module that answers it, from burn dressings to an eyewash station where corrosives make one mandatory.
5. Decide placement, quantity, and cadence — then write it down. Supplies must be readily available: plan stations against the widely used benchmark of one per 25 employees or 300 feet of separation (a planning convention, not a codified federal ratio), one kit per crew on dispersed construction work, and an inspection cadence of weekly on construction jobs per 1926.50(d)(2) or monthly by convention elsewhere. The written assessment — hazards found, logs reviewed, choices made, date and owner — is what makes every later decision defensible.

The hazard-to-module map

Worked example: a 30-person machine shop

A 30-person shop runs mills, lathes and a small paint room, with an office up front. The task inventory surfaces laceration and caught-in hazards at the machines, solvent splash in the paint room, and nothing beyond paper cuts in the office. The 300 log for three years shows eleven hand lacerations, two eye entries, one burn. The assessment writes itself: Class B baseline at the shop floor (machinery plus a 30-person crew), delivered as a wall cabinet from the first aid cabinets collection; a bleeding-control kit mounted at the mill bay because the log says hands meet spinning steel; a Z358.1 eyewash station at the paint room door — the solvent SDS sheets, not preference, drive that — plus extra dressings and gloves above the Class B minimum because eleven lacerations in three years is the log shouting. The office gets a compact Class A kit. Stations: two kits and a cabinet across one building satisfies the 25-employee benchmark with margin. Cadence: monthly checks against the first aid kit inspection checklist, restocked from first aid kit refills, with the assessment itself reviewed annually and after any process change — the periodic reassessment Appendix A asks for.

Documenting the assessment

Nothing in 1910.151 requires a written first aid assessment — which is precisely why writing it down is the cheap win: the document is how you show an inspector, an insurer, or your own successor that the kit's class, count and placement were decisions, not defaults. Four sections cover it: hazards identified by task; injury history reviewed (years and sources); choices made (class, stations, modules, cadence) with the reasoning in one line each; owner and review date. Staple the latest inspection card summary to it and the program audits itself.

Frequently asked questions

Does OSHA require a first aid needs assessment?

Not by that name. 1910.151(b) requires supplies adequate for the workplace, and the non-mandatory Appendix A describes the assessment method — injury logs, local medical consultation, periodic review — as how to get to adequate. The assessment is how you evidence the duty rather than a duty itself.

What is a first aid needs assessment?

A structured pass over the work to decide what first aid provision it needs: hazards by task, injury history from the OSHA 300 and 301 logs, an ANSI Z308.1 class baseline, hazard modules the class fill lacks, and placement, quantity and inspection cadence — written down with an owner and a review date.

How does the OSHA 300 log feed the assessment?

It is your workplace's actual injury record, and Appendix A names it directly: recurring entries justify stocking above the class minimum for exactly those injuries. A log full of lacerations argues for dressings and gloves; recurring eye entries argue for eyewash and eye protection review.

Is the ANSI class enough by itself?

The class is the floor. Z308.1's own framing — and Appendix A's — expects augmentation where operations are larger, multiple, or unusual. The assessment is what identifies the augmentation; the class just guarantees the baseline.

Who should run the assessment?

The person who owns the first aid program — safety manager, facility manager, or site supervisor — with input from whoever knows the tasks best. For unusual hazards, Appendix A suggests consulting the local fire and rescue service, a medical professional, or the nearest emergency room.

How often should the assessment be revisited?

Periodically, per Appendix A — in practice annually, plus immediately after any process change, new equipment, new chemical, or incident that the current kit handled badly. The reassessment is usually minutes, not hours, once the first one is written.

How many first aid kits should the assessment specify?

Enough that supplies are readily available everywhere work happens: the common planning benchmark is one station per 25 employees or 300 feet of separation, whichever needs more, plus one kit per crew on dispersed construction work. It is a convention, not a codified ratio — the assessment's placement logic is what defends the number.

What does the assessment change on a construction site?

The baseline duties arrive from 1926.50 rather than convention: supplies easily accessible, contents in a weatherproof container with sealed packages, checks before each job and weekly on the job, and a certified first-aid-trained person where no clinic is reasonably accessible. The assessment then layers site hazards — struck-by, silica, hot work — on top.

Does the assessment cover eyewash?

Yes, and it is the one place the answer can be mandatory: where the eyes or body may be exposed to injurious corrosive materials, 1910.151(c) requires suitable drenching and flushing facilities — an ANSI Z358.1 station, for which a kit bottle is only supplementary support.

What about bloodborne pathogens?

If employees are reasonably anticipated to be exposed to blood while giving first aid, 1910.1030(d)(3) requires appropriate PPE — gloves, face and eye protection, barriers. Appendix A restates that duty explicitly, so an assessment that skips it has missed a hard requirement, not a recommendation.

Should the assessment pick a container type too?

Yes — class decides contents, container type decides survival. Fixed indoor stations suit Type I cabinets; vehicle and field kits need the water resistance of Type III or the harsh-environment build of Type IV, decoded in our ANSI first aid kit types explained guide.

Can I just buy a bigger kit instead of assessing?

A bigger kit buys quantities, not relevance — it will not add the tourniquet at the mill bay, the burn tier at the fryer, or the eyewash station the solvent room legally needs. Oversizing is also how kits fail inspections: more dated stock to expire, none of it matched to the log.

Is there a template for the written assessment?

No mandated form exists. Four sections carry it — hazards by task, injury history reviewed, decisions with one-line reasoning, owner and review date — and the decisions section should name the class, station count, modules, and cadence so the next reviewer can audit choices rather than reconstruct them.

How does expiration management fit the assessment?

The assessment sets the cadence; rotation keeps the fill real. Dated supplies — antiseptics, ointments, eyewash, medications, sterile stock — leave at the printed date, per the item-by-item chart in our do first aid supplies expire guide.

What is the fastest way to a defensible starting point?

Run the five steps above in one afternoon, or start with the interactive version: the first aid kit selector maps setting, headcount and hazards to a class, format, station count and module list — then the written assessment records why you accepted or adjusted it.

Further reading on this site

• First aid kit selector — the interactive half of this assessment.
• OSHA first aid kit requirements — the duties the assessment serves.
• ANSI Class A vs Class B first aid kits — the class-baseline decision in step 3.
• First aid kit inspection checklist — the cadence the assessment sets.
• Do first aid supplies expire — rotation, the maintenance half of adequacy.
• Workplace first aid kits — stocked kits with published class fills.

Why trust WC Safety

WC Safety is an independent, affiliate-supported review site. It is not a retailer: it holds no inventory, takes no orders, and earns only from qualifying purchases through clearly marked links — which never changes what a product is rated to do. The assessment method on this page is OSHA's own, taken from the non-mandatory Appendix A to 1910.151 read in full for this guide, and the page is explicit about which duties are hard requirements — corrosive-exposure drenching under 1910.151(c), bloodborne-pathogen PPE under 1910.1030(d)(3) — and which are guidance. We run no laboratory and perform no testing of our own.

Our methodology

Researched and written by Steven Eaton, editor of WC Safety. Steven holds no safety certification and does not test products; this page reports what the regulations and OSHA's own guidance say, with the gaps in that record marked. Last reviewed August 2026.