epstein, irisHerne, P.Masita, S.Peisachovich, E.Eliadis, M.Robinson, B.Lee, C. P.Grosman-Rimon, L.Silva, C.2021-03-082021-03-082017-07Journal of Nursing Education and Practice 2017, Vol. 7, No. 121925-4040https://doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v7n12p20http://hdl.handle.net/10315/38135Objective: To explore how palpation of the head and neck is practiced and taught. Methods: The scoping review methodology was guided by Arksey and O’Malley’s five-stage approach. Three experienced and independent reviewers searched nine databases according to a predetermine inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: A total of 15 articles from medicine, chiropractic and dentistry published between 1987 and 2016 were included. Two overarching themes emerged, a Cartesian and a Pragmatic perspective in practicing and teaching palpating of the head and neck. Although both perspectives are valuable, we advocate to practice and teach palpation of head and neck from a Pragmatic perspective particularly with the increase use of ultrasound technology to detect masses. A pragmatic perspective takes into account the patient’s context, the ethics of care and highlights the importance of health care providers fostering interpersonal relationships with others during physical assessment. Conclusions: Although nursing studies were absent from this review we believe nurses play a vital role when they are aware of the Cartesian and Pragmatics perspectives when practicing and teaching head and neck palpation as part of a physical assessment. Learning how other disciplines are practicing and teaching head and neck palpation skills will improve interdisciplinary collaboration.enCopyright Policy Copyrights for articles are retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the journal/publisher. Authors have rights to reuse, republish, archive, and distribute their own articles after publication. The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. Authors shall permit the publisher to apply a DOI to their articles and to archive them in databases and indexes such as EBSCO, DOAJ, and ProQuest. Open-access Policy We follow the Gold Open Access way in journal publishing. This means that authors publish in the journals that provide immediate open access for readers to all articles on the publisher’s website. The readers pay nothing, while authors (or their institutions or funders) pay an Article Processing Charge to maintain the journal operation. All articles published are open-access articles distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license.Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhead and neckpalpationpracticeteachingArticleJournal of Nursing Education and Practicehttp://web.sciedu.ca/http://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/jnep/article/view/11461