(My initial post)reflect on the focus area or system(s) for the

1. (My initial Post)
Reflect on the focus area or system(s) for the week.
· What challenges might you anticipate in completing this
assessment?
· What differences might you anticipate when assessing patients
across the lifespan?
· Share findings from scholarly resources that help in the
performance of this assessment.
What challenges might you anticipate in completing this
assessment?
HEENT/Neck areas of physical examination can be termed as
major sources of assessment and diagnostic information for
conditions affecting a broad array of systems. For example,
diabetes usually manifests through blurry vision, while
infections may manifest through headaches, watery eyes, and
even loss of smell. This shows the importance of HEENT in
diagnosing a myriad of conditions. One of the common
challenges that can be anticipated in HEENT examination is
deeply rooted in the fact that assessment information from this
section usually infers to health conditions in other areas. For
example, loss of smell or taste may signal neurological
problems as well as infections affecting the oral and respiratory
surfaces/structures. As such, a single finding can translate into
many possibilities; an aspect that complicates the HEENT
assessment. The other challenge comes from the fact that
HEENT assessment requires effective communication skills
from the patient (Dains, Baumann, & Scheibel, 2016). In some
circumstances, patients may have impaired communication
skills, therefore, resulting in increased difficulty in carrying out
a sound HEENT physical examination.
What differences might you anticipate when assessing patients
across the lifespan?

2. Age-specific features have different implications when it comes
to undertaking HEENT assessment. A typical example touches
on the pediatric population such as children below the age of 12
months with under-developed sensory and communication
capabilities. Equally, across the lifespan, people usually
develop conditions that can affect HEENT assessment. For
example, age-related alterations, as well as mental disorders,
affect perceptual and sensory capabilities, as such; taking away
the vital aspect of patients’ cooperation as far as carrying out a
physical assessment on these areas is concerned.
Share findings from scholarly resources that help in the
performance of this assessment.
Indubitably, these challenges cannot interfere with an effective
HEENT assessment, if there is a deliberate use of the evidence -
based practice. For example, according to Bickley (2017) one
should approach such a complex assessment area with an open
mind, and ready to consider multiple possibilities. It is also
important to rely on additional assessment approaches such as
subjective assessment (Review of Systems) to supplement the
information gained from the HEENT’s and neck physical
examination. This can help in eliminating any assessment
challenges and doubts.
References
Bickley, L. (2017). Bates' Guide to Physical Examination and
History Taking (12th ed.). New York: Lippincott, Williams &
Wilkins.
Dains, J.E., Baumann, L.C., & Scheibel, P. (2016). Advanced
Health Assessment and Clinical Diagnosis in Primary Care (5th
ed.) Boston: Elsevier.
Reply Posts

3. Respond to your peers’ post and include the following:
· Insight on a solution to an identified peer challenge.
· Resources that may be helpful related to your peers’ post.
POST # 2 JAVONN
(Javonn’s initial Post)
Reflect on the focus area or system(s) for the week.
· What challenges might you anticipate in completing this
assessment?
· What differences might you anticipate when assessing patients
across the lifespan?
· Share findings from scholarly resources that help in the
performance of this assessment.
After checking a patient’s vital signs as the first part of a
general physical examination, nurses may perform a HEENT
(head, eyes, ears, nose, and throat) exam. This assessment
requires the use of specific devices, such as an otoscope or
tongue depressor, which help nurse practitioners gather
important information about the patient’s state of health. This
can eventually lay the foundation for the initial development of
a patient’s care strategy. As Bickley (2017), even though a
HEENT examination is formulated by objective findings, the
subjective statements from the patient are the important
building blocks in making those objective findings connect.
Some challenges I might anticipate in completing this
assessment is the lack of confidence I may exude when
performing this assessment on my patients and the patient will
be able to pick up my energy vibes. Another challenge is the
heavy reliance on technology and not on manual skills when the
diagnostic tools become defective or inoperable. Another
challenge faced is the lack of nurse leaders or role models that
encourages the use of good assessment on patients.
One difference I might anticipate when assessing patients
across the lifespan is the difference in the amount of time for
each unique patient age group. For example, the time spent on
assessment with a teenager it will vary when compared to a

4. toddler, child, adult or a geriatric patient. Some scholarly
articles to refer to help in the performance for this assessment is
from researchers Alamri & Almazan (2018) noted that
continuous exposure to practice assessing patients, with
enhancing the quality of planning and promotion of the provider
could develop necessary skills. In addition, increasing self-
confidence is vital to assess the patient’s health status
effectively and minimize the barriers to performing the physical
assessment (Douglas,Windsor,Lewis, 2015).
Reference
Alamri, M. S., & Almazan, J. U. (2018). Barriers of physical
assessment skills among nursing students in Arab Peninsula.
International journal of health sciences, 12(3), 58–66.
Bickley, L. (2017). Bates' guide to physical examination and
history taking (12th ed.). New York: Lippincott,Williams &
Wilkins.
Douglas, C., Windsor, C., & Lewis, P. (2015). Too much
knowledge for a nurse? Use of physical assessment by final -
semester nursing students. Nursing & health sciences, 17(4),
492–499. https://doi.org/10.1111/nhs.12223
Reply Posts
Respond to your peers’ post and include the following:
· Insight on a solution to an identified peer challenge.
· Resources that may be helpful related to your peers’ post.
POST # 1 AYME
(Ayme’s initial Post)
Reflect on the focus area or system(s) for the week.
· What challenges might you anticipate in completing this
assessment?

5. · What differences might you anticipate when assessing patients
across the lifespan?
· Share findings from scholarly resources that help in the
performance of this assessment.
The assessment of the HEENT is one of the routine nursing
physical examinations. For instance, many hospital visits are
due to respiratory infections as well as injuries affecting the
HEENT. This makes this area of assessment quite common in
daily practice. The regularity of HEENT assessments/
examinations does not however make this is an easy area of
clinical examination. For instance, one of the challenges that
one may anticipate relates to the patient’s lack of cooperation
due to a myriad of factors including pain or impaired cognitive
capabilities. As Bickley (2017), even though HEENT
examination is objective, the assessment findings are usually
based on the patient’s subjective account such as hearing and
vision patterns or even taste patterns. Therefore, the subjective
aspect of HEENT physical examination makes it particularly
challenging since the responses provided by a patient may be
inaccurate. On the other hand, this assessment area houses
multiple organ systems that work both independently and
dependently. These compounds the challenge in HEENT
assessment since one finding may translate to multiple possible
physiological and diagnostic implications. As such, as Harding,
Kwong, Roberts, Reinisch & Hagler (2019), the propensity to
misdiagnose in HEENT is high especially when one lacks sound
knowledge about the possible systemic symptoms that manifest
via HEENT.
Besides, assessing patients across the lifespan poses
additional and unique challenges. For instance, one of the
challenges touches on the patient’s inability to cooperate due to
underlying cognitive and perception weaknesses. For example,
young children and older adults have poor cognitive and
perception capabilities, thus making it hard to rely on their
perceived stimuli for assessment. Besides, elderly persons may
have underlying conditions such as dementia that makes it hard

6. to fully win their cooperation in the physical examination of
HEENT.
Despite these challenges, various evidence-based strategies
can be used to enhance diagnostic accuracy. According to
Dains, Baumann & Scheibel (2016), it is always important to
engage a high level of intuition and keen observation to collect
additional clues from the patients' behavioral effects when
subjected to certain stimuli such as smell or sound among other
stimuli used in HEENT assessment. As Jarvis (2018) asserts, it
is also important to use assessment aids such as the
ophthalmoscope among others when conducting HEENT
assessments to ensure that all the clues are collected. When
dealing with children who have impaired self-expression skills,
it is important to enroll the assistance of the parent in terms of
interpreting a child’s reaction to certain stimuli or assessment
technique as well as use children-friendly methods of winning
their cooperation such as offering rewards and other extrinsic
motivation aspects (Perry, Hockenberry, Alden, Lowdermilk,
Cashion & Wilson, 2017).
References
Bickley, L. (2017). Bates' guide to physical examination and
history taking (12th ed.). New York: Lippincott,Williams &
Wilkins.
Dains, J.E., Baumann, L.C., & Scheibel, P. (2016). Advanced
health assessment and clinical diagnosis in primary care (5th
ed.). Boston: Elsevier.
Harding, M. M., Kwong, J., Roberts, D., Reinisch, C., &
Hagler, D. (2019). Lewis's medical-surgical nursing:
Assessment and management of clinical problems, single
volume. Mosby.
Jarvis, C. (2018). Physical Examination and Health Assessment-
Canadian E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Perry, S. E., Hockenberry, M. J., Alden, K. R., Lowdermilk, D.
L., Cashion, M. C., & Wilson, D. (2017). Maternal Child
Nursing Care-E-Book. Mosby.