Clinician’s Playbook for Orthopaedics

Topic: Clinical
CEU: 1.5 units
Contact Hours: 15 hours

Evidence-Based Evaluation and Treatment Strategies for Common Orthopaedic Conditions

An OCS Exam Review and Clinical Reasoning Guide

Clinician’s Playbook for Orthopaedics is an evidence-informed clinical reasoning course for physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, students, residents, and clinicians preparing for orthopaedic practice or OCS-style examination review.

This course reviews common orthopaedic conditions involving the cervical spine, shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand, lumbar spine, hip, knee, foot, and ankle. It emphasizes safe screening, differential diagnosis, red flags, outcome measures, clinical practice guidelines, clinical prediction rules, decision rules, treatment selection, and case-based reasoning.

This course covers:

• Clinical research and statistics
• Research effects, including placebo, nocebo, Hawthorne, John Henry, and Pygmalion/Rosenthal effects
• Cervical spine screening, classification, and treatment reasoning
• Shoulder examination and treatment strategies
• Hand, wrist, and elbow conditions
• Lumbar spine evaluation and treatment planning
• Hip conditions and functional rehabilitation
• Knee examination and treatment strategies
• Foot and ankle assessment and intervention
• Headache and concussion considerations
• Red flags and medical referral decision-making
• Clinical practice guideline application
• Clinical prediction rules and decision rules
• OCS-style case reasoning and examination preparation

The purpose of this course is to help clinicians strengthen orthopaedic evaluation, screening, treatment planning, and clinical reasoning skills. The course is designed to help learners apply evidence-based principles to real patient presentations while recognizing when referral, modification, or further screening is necessary.

The book includes 10 chapters, high-yield OCS exam tables, clinical practice guideline references, clinical prediction and decision rules, a comprehensive practice examination, answers with rationales, and a final-week study plan.