Nurse Practitioner and Image Interpretation

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Trying to implement a role for Nurse Practitioners and image interpretation at my hospital, currently not allowed to interpret chest x-rays but just request them, anyone experienced similar problems/opposition? How did you overcome it?

Specializes in FNP.

someday someone with a radiographically induced tumor is going to sue your colleague. ;-)

The OP doesn't give enough information to really gauge the situation well, but generally speaking I believe a radiologist would always do final reads. This is not a scope of practice issue, this is a patient safety issue.

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someday someone with a radiographically induced tumor is going to sue your colleague. ;-)

The OP doesn't give enough information to really gauge the situation well, but generally speaking I believe a radiologist would always do final reads. This is not a scope of practice issue, this is a patient safety issue.

Considering a CT scan is the equivalent of hundreds of x-rays and considering how ubiquitus CTs are, I don't think anyone is going to sue him for an extra XR

If you want to read CXRs, go to med school and become a radiologist. There is a reason they are the people to read them. Even experienced internists have difficulty reading CXRs which is why there are radiologists. The legal liability is enormous.

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Trying to implement a role for Nurse Practitioners and image interpretation at my hospital, currently not allowed to interpret chest x-rays but just request them, anyone experienced similar problems/opposition? How did you overcome it?

I am a NP working in Radiology at a small hospital. We are trying to expand our Interventional Radiology services. I, too, am looking for information on how to read images. I have heard that there are courses specifically for nurses to enhance radiology reading but I'm finding it near impossible to find any CE in this specific area. If anyone has any information on a course for nurses to improve some basic radiology reading, that would be most helpful. Thank you, Terri

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Let me clarify, I do not want to read images for final interpretation and would never even consider that I could do such a thing. I agree, that's what radiologists are for. I only want to enhance my own "personal" experience in order to feel more comfortable in the department. When all of the Rad Techs are looking at images and seeing certain basic things, all I want to be able to do is have a better understanding of what they are seeing. While in NP school we have an extremely abbreviated section on basic radiology reading which was pretty much useless. We are not radiologists and I would never think that I could replace that expertise. I just want more personal knowledge and want to improve my own skills.

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Specializes in ER, Critical Care, Paramedicine.
Let me clarify, I do not want to read images for final interpretation and would never even consider that I could do such a thing. I agree, that's what radiologists are for. I only want to enhance my own "personal" experience in order to feel more comfortable in the department. When all of the Rad Techs are looking at images and seeing certain basic things, all I want to be able to do is have a better understanding of what they are seeing. While in NP school we have an extremely abbreviated section on basic radiology reading which was pretty much useless. We are not radiologists and I would never think that I could replace that expertise. I just want more personal knowledge and want to improve my own skills.

As I said earlier, I wetread here for tube placement, line placement, ptx, etc. They are then read in the morning by the radiologist for final read. If I have a question, I have an attending on call at home that I consult. When I first came out of school, I worked as an APRN in the ED and spent many an overnight hour with the radiologist reading films.

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Specializes in Cardiac, Pulmonary, Anesthesia.
Let me clarify, I do not want to read images for final interpretation and would never even consider that I could do such a thing. I agree, that's what radiologists are for. I only want to enhance my own "personal" experience in order to feel more comfortable in the department. When all of the Rad Techs are looking at images and seeing certain basic things, all I want to be able to do is have a better understanding of what they are seeing. While in NP school we have an extremely abbreviated section on basic radiology reading which was pretty much useless. We are not radiologists and I would never think that I could replace that expertise. I just want more personal knowledge and want to improve my own skills.

I hope this isn't a TOS issue, but a great website to help you learn radiology is Welcome to LearningRadiology. It's free, has lectures, quizzes, and is overall very good to enhance your knowledge.

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

Thank you, Abe.

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Thank you so much! I will look into that. By the way, I'm still searching for a course in Radiology for the Non-Radiology person. :)

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Specializes in ER; CCT.
I am in the ACNP program at UAB. They are no longer offering the online course Radiology for the APN. I want to take this course somewhere and transfer the credit to UAB. I've been browsing some universities course catalogs and have yet to find an online option. Any of you know of a school that currently offers this?

If you are looking for semester units, I'm not sure. If you are looking to learn about X-Ray reading, here is one possible path. I ordered "Essentials of Radiology" by Mettler and "Accident and Emergency X-Rays made easy" by Begg. I spent several months with these books then, with permission from faculty, reached out to a large radiology group and asked to tag along with a radiologist for a few weeks.

The spin I put on getting my foot in the door was the fact that I would soon be a NP in primary care and with all of the competing radiologist companies, it would sure be nice to know people from such an organization. The managing partner is the one I approached. Anyway, since you already have your HIPAA training with the school, and since there are no actual contact hours and since you are not involved with care, you shouldn't need a full-blown clinical contract.

I am so glad I spent the time doing this as it really helped. Good luck.

Tammy

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