NU333 Unit 4 head and neck assessment example

Reviewed by Elspeth Marlowe, MSN, RN Health Assessment for the Nursing Professional Purdue University Global Free custom sample in 24 to 48h

This page holds a complete NU333 Unit 4 head and neck assessment example in true form. A composite 66-year-old retired sheet-metal worker has trouble following conversation in a crowded room; the note follows that complaint through otoscopy, the whispered voice test and the Weber and Rinne tests, and documents the eyes, nose, mouth, thyroid and ten lymph node groups around it. Most sections set this unit as a head and neck assessment.

What this page holds

Hearing loss, tuning forks and ten node groups make up this composite NU333 Unit 4 head and neck assessment, documented region by region. Searches like "nu 333 unit 4 assignment example", "nu333 unit 4 sample" and "nu333 unit 4 example" land here.

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Head and Neck Assessment: Following a Hearing Complaint Through Otoscopy, a Whispered Voice Test and Tuning Forks

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

NU333: Health Assessment for the Nursing Professional

Unit 4 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Composite patient written as a model document. Findings are composite.

What this part is doingThe title names the complaint and the tests that follow it. A reader knows from it where the note will spend most of its space.
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History Behind the Visit

He worked 35 years in a sheet-metal shop, wearing ear protection only in the last ten. He first noticed the problem at family dinners, where he can hear the person beside him but loses the thread when several people talk at once. He denies ear pain, drainage, dizziness or ringing. His wife says he turns the television up louder than she likes.

Head

Normal head size and shape. No scalp lesions, and nothing tender on palpation. His face moves evenly when he smiles and frowns. Temporal arteries soft and not tender.

Eyes

Snellen acuity 20/30 right and 20/40 left with glasses. Both pupils 3 mm, round, and brisk to constrict with light and on near focus. Eyes track smoothly through all six gaze positions, with no nystagmus. Conjunctivae pink, sclerae white.

Ears

External ears without lesions. Otoscopy: canals clear of occluding cerumen; tympanic membranes pearly gray with a visible light reflex on both sides.

Whispered voice test: missed on the right, heard on the left. The test is a simple, accurate screen for hearing impairment in adults (Pirozzo et al., 2003).

Weber test: the sound lateralizes to the left ear. Rinne test: air conduction longer than bone conduction on both sides. Written as findings first and pattern second: lateralization to the better-hearing ear with air conduction longer than bone conduction bilaterally is consistent with sensorineural loss on the right. The pattern fits his history of noise exposure, but the note leaves cause to the provider. Both tests were done in a quiet room with a 512-hertz fork, since background noise and a lower-pitched fork can blur the result.

Nose and Mouth

Nasal mucosa pink, septum midline, no discharge. Upper denture fits well; mucosa pink and moist; no lesions under the denture; tongue midline.

Neck

Trachea midline. Thyroid not enlarged, rises symmetrically on swallowing, no nodules. Full range of motion.

Lymph Nodes

Examined in a fixed order: preauricular, posterior auricular, occipital, tonsillar, submandibular, submental, superficial cervical, posterior cervical, deep cervical chain and supraclavicular (Bickley et al., 2021). None palpable except one left submandibular node: 1 cm, oval, soft, mobile and nontender.

What this part is doingThe node sequence is fixed, so absent nodes are documented as deliberately as the one present. That node is described by size, shape, consistency, mobility and tenderness.
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Reported

The right-sided hearing pattern was reported with a request for audiology referral. The submandibular node was reported with a request to recheck in two to four weeks and to evaluate further if it persists or grows.

What this part is doingThe reporting paragraph closes the note with two requests, each tied to a finding. The hearing pattern and the node are reported without being named as diagnoses.
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References

Bickley, L. S., Szilagyi, P. G., Hoffman, R. M., & Soriano, R. P. (2021). Bates' guide to physical examination and history taking (13th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Pirozzo, S., Papinczak, T., & Glasziou, P. (2003). Whispered voice test for screening for hearing impairment in adults and children: Systematic review. BMJ, 327(7421), 967. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.327.7421.967

How this NU333 Unit 4 example is structured

Regions are documented in the order examined, and within each the note moves from inspection to palpation to any special test. The hearing complaint gets the most space because it is the reason for the visit, yet it does not crowd out regions with normal findings, each of which is still recorded. Tuning fork results are written as findings first, where the sound lateralized and which conduction lasted longer, and only then as the pattern they suggest, worded as consistent with rather than diagnostic of. The node table uses a fixed sequence, preauricular through supraclavicular, so absent nodes are documented as deliberately as present ones. The one palpable node is described by size, shape, consistency, mobility and tenderness. What was reported closes the note: the right-sided hearing pattern and the node, with a request for follow-up if it persists.

Get an NU333 Unit 4 example written to your instructions

A composite HEENT note, findings before interpretation and nodes in sequence, is what comes back; its scope follows the Unit 4 prompt, whether that means a focused ear exam or the full head and neck with lymphatics. Attach that prompt and the rubric. Results from a real volunteer stay the student's own. First sample free, 24-48h. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.

NU333 Unit 4 questions, answered

How are the Weber and Rinne tests documented?

Record what happened, then the pattern. For Weber, note whether the sound was heard in the midline or lateralized to one ear. For Rinne, note whether air conduction lasted longer than bone conduction on each side. Normal hearing gives a midline Weber and air conduction longer than bone. Lateralization toward the better ear with normal Rinne suggests sensorineural loss on the other side.

Which lymph nodes belong in a head and neck assessment?

Most texts list preauricular, posterior auricular, occipital, tonsillar, submandibular, submental, superficial cervical, posterior cervical, deep cervical and supraclavicular groups. Palpate them in a consistent sequence so none is missed, and document each group, including those not palpable. Any palpable node is described by its size, shape, consistency, mobility and tenderness, so change can be tracked.

Is a palpable lymph node always abnormal?

No. Small, soft, mobile, nontender nodes are common, especially in the neck after minor infections. What prompts concern is a node that is hard, fixed, enlarging, tender without explanation, or larger than about a centimeter and persistent. The nurse's role is to describe it precisely and report it according to policy, not to decide its cause.