This practical introductory guide provides PA/NP students with the tools to recognize and begin treatment of the most common orthopedic problems, to avoid missing critical diagnoses, and to serve as a base of knowledge to which they can add depending on their chosen career path. Utilizing this concise text, PA/NP students will gain a basic familiarity with how to describe a problem (including imaging) to an orthopedic surgeon as well as how to begin treatment. In addition, the student should have no difficulty passing the orthopedic portion of the PA/NP credentialing exams. <div> </div><div>The essentials of imaging, fracture description and operating room procedures are presented first. Then, proceeding anatomically from upper to lower extremity and the spine, chapters utilize a user-friendly chapter format covering fractures, dislocations and trauma as well as non-traumatic injury, focusing on pathophysiology, diagnosis and differential diagnosis, and brief treatment protocols.