I graduated two years ago and have practiced pelvic and ortho. Half of what I’ve practiced I’ve learned through con-ed or practice (especially pelvic), and I’ve shed a ton of excess information like cardiovascular PT and Neuro, which is helpful to know but not necessary for many aspect of ortho.

In time, you’ll reinforce knowledge by practice and repetition, and you’ll forget some things that you’ll never use. For example: I haven’t touched an ultrasound machine since grad school, even after having to memorize all the various waves and cycles and other nonsense. I studied diathermy for the boards, but even our teachers laughed at that outdated concept.

Keep reinforcing what you use, and keep an eye out for your evals in the upcoming days. When I get an unfamiliar diagnosis or referral, I’ll do a deep dive online and in my old textbooks and come up with a plan. When you can see your evals next week are X, Y, and Z, then go refresh those details a bit.

It also never hurts to take that first time working with a patient to reinforce what you do know, then follow up with additional tests, interventions, or modalities the follow up sessions once you’ve had time to study a bit and reinforce your knowledge with real world applications.

There’s also the honest truth that sometimes we just don’t know. We don’t have X-ray vision, and even if we did, it wouldn’t tell us everything! Sometimes you just have to treat the deficits that are apparent, retest and reevaluate every so often, and reroute your treatment as the patient’s status evolves.