To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.

Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates' initial postings. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Cite sources in your responses to other classmates.

Discussion Question 1

Children and adults often present with complaints of ear pain. Your differential diagnoses should include otitis media and otitis externa, in addition to other possibilities such as foreign body obstruction and cerumen impactions. Give a brief overview of otitis media and otitis externa, including signs and symptoms of the most common causative agents for both.

In addition, discuss the physical exam findings that you might see with the conditions when visualizing various parts of the ear such as ear canal or the tympanic membrane. How will your assessment of the ear differ in children versus adults? What would be essential health history questions to ask patients that present with ear pain and why? Support your answers with appropriate references.

Discussion Question 2

Discuss the physical assessment of a patient who presences with the complaint of cervical lymphadenopathy. What are the specific lymph nodes that you will assess?

How do you palpate the lymph nodes and what are the normal versus abnormal findings? In the presence of abnormal findings, what diagnostic tests would you order and why? Also, what are the possible differential diagnoses and would your recommendations differ for adult, pediatric, and geriatric patients?