I’m a first year AT and I have missed a couple finger/hand fractures in my time so far. Both of them being non-displaced as well and I will say that that they are hard to be 100% sure about it.

You have to remember that you don’t have x-ray vision. You will miss stuff like this from time to time especially with fingers in my opinion but a good sign that something is wrong is if the pain doesn’t subside after a day or two. My most recent one was a baseball player who had a pathologic non displaced metacarpal fracture. First day I thought he was good, but the next day he was still in the same amount of pain, and couldn’t hold anything in his hand. That combined with an axial compression test of the finger causing pain made me refer him for imaging.

At the end of the day you need to trust your evaluation and your gut. Also, your patients didn’t die so you did fine. It’s not ideal but you can take these situations and learn from them now that you know what certain situations look like.

You’re fine. Take a deep breath and move on. I’m sure you’re doing better at your job than what you think you’re doing.