Advanced Nurse Practitioner Educational Needs for Safe and Efficient Radiological Imaging

Purpose:The Purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and educational preparedness of advanced practice nurses (APNs) in the area of radiologic imaging. Numerous studies have been conducted and acknowledge that there is a need for further education in the area of radiological imaging for medical students, and residents  however little to no research has been completed assessing APNs.  This study identified whether or not APN’s are aware of and utilize the American College of Radiology – Appropriateness Criteria ( ACR-AC) which are evidence based guidelines developed by a multispecialty expert panel to help guide practitioners’.

Methodology: A survey link was delivered via email to 7,500 state licensed Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners who had provided their email addresses to the state Medical Quality Assurance Services. A total of 905 APN responses were received with representation from 160 different APN educational programs and 10 APN specialty areas.  The investigator developed the questionnaire after a literature review which indicated that little to no studies were completed on APN’s knowledge and attitudes towards radiological imaging. Standard statistics, including distribution of responses, were used to analyze data, which were then stratified by specialty. Descriptive responses were analyzed for frequencies and percentages. Comparisons of years of experience and area of certification were explored to determine if this had any effect on radiological imaging preparedness. Hypotheses were assessed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Findings:. Responses revealed that 75.9% (n= 684) reported that they had never heard of the American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria ACR-AC.  It was determined that experience did increase perceived competency in ordering radiological tests.  Those trained in the acute care specialties responses indicated that they had a greater perceived knowledge of interpretation of imaging results, and ordering diagnostic imaging specific in their specialty, than those trained in primary care specialties.

Conclusions: APNs in this study reported that they are not familiar with the ACR guidelines, and would like additional education in their APN training to help prepare them in choosing appropriate imaging examinations. The findings from this study were similar to the findings and results from resident studies.