Do NP students need radiology education?

A new gap between training and workplace demands has more NP students curious about basic skills in radiology

Do nurse practitioner students need to learn basic radiology skills during their training? We sat down with NP student Robin Komay to discuss her recent experience with RadClerk and her broader perspective on the role of radiology in NP school curricula. Robin comes to NP school after 19 years as a registered nurse in Wisconsin.

While an estimated 90% of nurse practitioners use radiology in their practice, radiology education has historically been less represented in the NP school curriculum, compared with other diagnostic skills like interpretation of electrocardiograms. That might be a historical artifact—today's nurse practitioners use radiology on a daily basis in primary care, emergency medicine, and beyond.

Robin’s view was blunt: the mismatch shows up the moment you step into clinicals. “You’re expected to order the right study, understand what the report is actually saying, and recognize when something is time-sensitive,” she told us. “But most of us don’t get a structured way to learn that. We pick it up ad hoc, from preceptors, or we don’t pick it up at all.” In other words: NP students aren’t being asked to be radiologists—they’re being asked to be safe, decisive clinicians in environments where imaging is one of the main ways decisions get made.

What “basic radiology skills” actually means for NP students

When we say “radiology skills,” we don’t mean memorizing esoteric findings or learning to read every modality. For NP training, “basic radiology” is a practical toolkit:

• Ordering intelligently: choosing the right test (XR vs CT vs ultrasound), knowing when contrast matters, and understanding what a study can and can’t answer.
• Reading a radiology report with confidence: understanding common language (atelectasis vs consolidation, incidentalomas, “cannot exclude…,” “recommend correlation…”), and translating it into a plan.
• Recognizing “don’t-miss” imaging diagnoses: situations where waiting is dangerous—like pneumothorax, pelvic fractures, and more.
• Communicating with radiology: providing the right clinical question, history, and suspected diagnosis so the radiologist can give the most helpful interpretation.
• Closing the loop: ensuring follow-up for actionable incidental findings and recommended additional imaging.

Robin emphasized that this isn’t “extra” knowledge. It’s a core part of how modern clinicians practice. “When you’re seeing patients back-to-back, the radiology report becomes a big part of your reasoning. If you don’t understand it, you’re either guessing or over-ordering.”

Why NP curricula often underweight radiology

The reasons are rarely philosophical—they’re logistical. NP programs are packed with essential content: pharmacology, health assessment, pathophysiology, primary care management, population health. Imaging often gets folded into lectures on specific conditions (pneumonia, kidney stones, headaches) rather than taught as a durable skill. That approach can work for a subset of students with strong clinical exposure—but it tends to leave gaps:

• Imaging becomes fragmented (a few slides here and there), rather than a coherent decision framework.
• Students learn what to do (order a CXR) without learning how to think (when XR is sufficient vs when CT changes management).
• There’s little repetition and feedback—yet imaging competence, like ECG interpretation, is built through volume + feedback.

What surprised Robin about hands-on radiology training

Robin’s experience with RadClerk was shaped by something most NP students don’t get: repeated low-stakes practice with immediate coaching. “It felt like I could finally build pattern recognition,” she said. “Not because someone told me what to order, but because I was seeing cases, writing what I thought, and getting corrected.”

A common misconception is that radiology training has to be intimidating. Robin disagreed. “It actually made me calmer. I wasn’t trying to become an expert. I was trying to feel prepared when imaging came back for my patients.”

The real payoff: better decisions at the bedside

The strongest argument for basic radiology training isn’t academic—it’s clinical. Imaging is often where the “fork in the road” happens:

• Is this chest pain likely benign, or could this be a pneumothorax that needs urgent escalation?
• Is this abdominal pain something you can treat symptomatically, or is it small bowel obstruction?
• Is that headache “just a headache,” or are there red flags that justify head CT?
• Is the “normal” film actually normal, or is there a subtle finding that changes next steps?

Robin framed it in a way NP faculty will recognize: “We talk so much about clinical reasoning. Imaging is part of that reasoning. If we don’t teach it, we’re leaving a blind spot.”

What NP faculty can do without adding a whole new course

Not every program can add a full radiology rotation or dedicated imaging course. But radiology skills can be taught efficiently if they’re structured, case-based, and feedback-rich. A practical approach we’ve seen work:

1. Define a small set of high-yield “must-not-miss” diagnoses relevant to NP practice.
2. Teach an ordering framework (what question you’re trying to answer; what modality answers it best).
3. Use short, repeated cases (10–15 minutes) that build pattern recognition.
4. Add report comprehension drills (turn radiology language into a plan).
5. Evaluate with a simple competency rubric (not a massive exam).

A simple takeaway

NP students—like PA and medical students—don’t need to graduate as radiologists. But they do need to graduate ready to practice in a world where imaging is everywhere—and where the safest clinician is the one who can order wisely, understand what they’re reading, and recognize when the stakes are high.

If you’re an NP student or NP educator and you’re curious what “basic radiology training” could look like in a curriculum, RadClerk was built specifically to make this skill approachable, practical, and scalable—through hands-on cases, micro-lectures, and repetition that builds confidence quickly.

Bring RadClerk to your program and catalyze the transformation you want to see in your students. Learn more at radclerk.com.