I always have lots of students interested to learn to read radiology studies. In class, we typically only cover CXR. I occasionally do some special lectures on head CT, but it takes a lot of practice to really be able to read your own imaging studies. We don’t spend a whole lot of time in NP school teaching it. It’s something that is really better spent on the job. The fact is, with the exception of CXR, actually reading your own radiology studies is going to be highly dependent on the area in which you work.
But, I think it’s always good to be able to understand the basics. So, Dr Naveen Sharma (known on Instagram as theRadiologist) has some great posts to help. This is a really good one detailing the basic anatomy of the chest CT. Chest CT is a study that is used not infrequently in critical care, whether to evaluate for PE, look for pneumonia, or more advanced lung disease. So, check out this post with some really great teaching on the basics of reading chest CTs.
critical care notes 