Brooke Humphrys s0274455

Reflective Journal

I am finding it difficult to quickly recall the different orthopaedic tests, I had a year off
between my bachelor degree and my masters so feel unfamiliar on which test to choose,
how to perform and what they are testing for. I have the information on flashcards in which
I can use to look up the information however I will need to improve dramatically on how
quickly I can identify what test to use, how to perform it and the outcome of that test
before my clinical entrance exams.

I found the orthopaedic test flashcards I made during my bachelor degree and I can trust the
information on the flashcards as the information I used to create them were from the
lecture content which was sourced credibly and referenced by the lecturers, the lectures
used information from our required textbooks and outlined the sensitivity and specificity of
the tests.

In total we were taught 13 cervical, 9 thoracic and 32 lumbopelvic orthopaedic tests so a

total of 54 orthopaedic tests. I needed a team approach for my strategy. My roommate was
who I selected as part of my team due to the convenience and willingness to help test me
and let me practice performing the various orthopaedic tests on her once a week. Each
night before bed I will read over the cards. I will then give my roommate the flash cards
once a week and she will ask me to perform the tests and identify what I am looking for and
score my recall out of 54.

A small improvement has occurred from the beginning of break week which is when I began
to implement the strategy until now in week 11. I have been able to recall and perform
29/54 without needing a hint. This is 16 more tests then I was originally able to and I was
able to identify and perform 47 tests after receiving hints. I have attached a table below
which shows my gradual improvement in test scores. To be able to score 54/54 and to not
forget them is the goal.

To achieve this, I will be applying a renewed approach of increasing the frequency of which I
test over the holidays and then once I have achieved the 54/54 performance goal without
hints then I will reduce the testing down to once a month to maintain the skill.

I have included the lecture PowerPoints which were used to create the flashcards in my
Weebly Portfolio, link attached below.

References:
Bergmann T.F., & Peterson D.H. (2011). Chiropractic technique: Principles and Procedures
(3rd ed.). Elsevier.
 Brooke Humphrys s0274455

Magee, D.J. (2014). Orthopaedic Physical Assessment (6th ed.). Elsevier.

Cleland J., & Koppenhaver, S. (2011). Netter’s Orthopaedic Clinical Examination: An Evidence
Based Approach (3rd ed.). Elsevier

Souza T. (2016). Differential Diagnosis and Management for the Chiropractor, (5th ed.).
Jones and Bartlett Learning.

Appendix:
Week to Week Orthopaedic Test Score
With Hints Without Hints
Break Week 14/54 13/54
Week 6 17/54 13/54
Week 7 18/54 15/54
Week 8 25/54 18/54
Week 9 28/54 22/54
Week 10 34/54 26/54
Week 11 47/54 29/54

Weebly Link:
https://brookehumphryss0274455.weebly.com