OCS Field Guide: A PT Podcast
Pass the OCS exam by studying smarter, not harder. This podcast is for physical therapists looking to become board-certified specialists in orthopedics. Use code FIELDGUIDE for 40% off a MedBridge subscription.
Episodes
Meet Dr. David Smelser, PT, DPT, OCS and Dr. Austin Kercheville, PT, DPT, OCS—two very busy Board-Certified Specialists in Orthopaedic Physical Therapy. We're here to help you pass the OCS on a tight schedule like we did. In this episode, we introduce ourselves and give you a few tips to get you started with your study plan.
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A large number of exam takers who fail to pass the OCS exam report that the section on research was one of their lowest-scoring sections. Dr. David Smelser discusses research basics as well as statistics and important values you will need to memorize to ace the research portion of the exam. In this episode, David covers levels of evidence, types of variables, p-values and alpha levels, type I and type II errors, effect sizes, Cohen...
Dr. David Smelser discusses psychological pitfalls of human research, including the placebo, nocebo, Hawthorne, John Henry, and Pygmalion (also called "Rosenthal") effects and some ways to mitigate them.
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Find more resources and subscribe to practice questions at PhysioFieldGuide.com.
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Dr. David Smelser introduces the 2012 low back pain Clinical Practice Guideline and covers the sections on prevalence, risk factors, and clinical courses. A couple case studies reinforce how this information might be used on the OCS exam.
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How is the OCS going to approach low back pain differential diagnosis and red flags? Dr. David Smelser discusses low back pain red flags using the CPG as well as a recent JOSPT article by Finucane et al. You can bet your bottom dollar this will be on the exam.
Find the Finucane article at https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/jospt.2020.9971.
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With the lumbar spine comprising 20% of the OCS exam, knowing both Fritz's 2007 treatment-based classification system and Alrwaily's 2016 update is essential to passing the exam. Dr. David Smelser breaks down these systems and includes a case study at the end.
Find these articles at our helpful resources page.
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As we wrap up the 2012 low back pain CPG by covering the treatment section, David discusses two topics the clinical practice guideline doesn't cover well: lumbar stenosis (as well as how to distinguish it from intermittent claudication) and how to bias nerve tension testing for various branches of the sciatic nerve nerves.
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Guest host Dr. Kim Richards, PT, DPT, OCS helps go through some practice questions on low back pain. Like the OCS, these questions are case-based with a couple surprise twists. See how well you've been learning your lumbar spine material by testing your knowledge on these questions.
Use code FIELDGUIDE for 40% off a MedBridge subscription.
Use code FIELDGUIDE for 40% off a MedBridge subscription.
Dr. Austin Kercheville begins our series on the 2017 neck pain Clinical Practice Guideline by covering neck pain prevalence, risk factors, clinical course, and prognosis.
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The neck pain CPG expects physical therapists to screen for red flags, but it doesn't give much detail on how to do that. Dr. Austin Kercheville fills in those gaps with this discussion of neck pain red flags and indications for imaging.
Find the articles referenced at physiofieldguide.com/resources.
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After providing an overview of the cervical spine treatment-based classification from 2004 and how it fits into the 2017 neck pain CPG, Dr. Austin Kercheville explains the diagnosis and treatment sections for neck pain with mobility deficits and neck pain with headaches.
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Find more resources and subscribe to practice questions at PhysioFieldGuide.com.
This information-packed episode finishes the 2017 neck pain CPG by covering diagnosis and treatment of neck pain with movement coordination impairments and neck pain with radiating pain. Additionally, Austin covers a CPR for cervical radiculopathy (and points out where it needs to be updated) and a CPR for intermittent cervical traction.
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Headaches can be tricky to diagnose and treat. In the headache section of the neck pain CPG, the authors recommend consulting two additional resources: the IHS's International Classification of Headache Disorders and the NICE's Headaches in Over 12s document. In this episode, David pulls the most important information from those documents together to help you distinguish some of the most common types of headaches.
The variety of rheumatoid disorders can be daunting, and pulling information together to tell them apart is challenging. In this episode, David covers osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis, septic arthritis, and gout. After discussing each, the conditions are contrasted for easier recognition of clinical features.
For more information on rheumatoid disorders, ...
In this episode, Austin covers the highlights of the 2017 Knee Ligament Sprain CPG, including diagnosis, outcomes, and treatments. He also covers the Ottawa Knee Rules, which are bound to show up on the OCS exam.
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Find more resources and subscribe to practice questions at PhysioFieldGuide.com.
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ACL injuries are one of the most studied orthopedic injuries, and we just couldn't get everything we'd like to say about them into the knee ligament sprain episode. So in this episode, David covers mechanisms behind non contact ACL injuries, the ACL injury prevention CPG, and ACL-deficient copers and non-copers.
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Today we cover the meniscus portion of the CPG also known as the Knee Pain and Mobility Impairments: Meniscal and Cartilage Lesions Revision 2018. Additionally, we pull in a CPG from the British Journal of Sports Medicine and some extra material to explain the CPG's recommendations.
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We finish the Knee Pain and Mobility Impairments: Meniscal and Articular Cartilage Lesions CPG (2018 revision) with this episode focused on articular cartilage lesions and surgeries. Additionally, we include an overview of the 5-stage decision tree model this CPG recommends and how the OCS exam might use information like this on the exam.
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The CPG on patellofemoral pain is both long and dense, so Austin takes us through an information-packed episode with a very helpful practice question at the end to tie it together and explain how you should expect to use this information on the OCS exam.
Use code FIELDGUIDE for 40% off a MedBridge subscription.
Find more resources and subscribe to practice questions at PhysioFieldGuide.com.
We're back with a new episode covering the APTA's 2020 TKA CPG and with a new MedBridge promo code! Use code FIELDGUIDE for 40% off a MedBridge subscription.
Find more resources and subscribe to practice questions at PhysioFieldGuide.com.
Use code FIELDGUIDE for 40% off a MedBridge subscription.
Support the podcast and get study guides and bonus episodes at Patreon.com/physiofieldguide.
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