 Hi and welcome to Nursing School Explained. This video goes into the assessment of all 12 cranial nerves. Remember that in the clinical setting, in the acute care setting, we sometimes don't assess the olfactory nerve but in this video I will show you how to do that as well. Cranial nerve assessment can be kind of nerve wracking for students sometimes but if you watched the video and you remember the acronym that I'll discuss in a different video then it's actually fairly easy once you kind of get used to it. Remember to also know the meaning behind the cranial nerve so trigeminal for example means that it has three branches so if you remember that it's easier for you to kind of focus on that when you go in to perform the assessment. Also make sure to watch the other sections of the neural assessment that I have coming up in terms of the sensory and motor and the gait assessment and the cerebellar function. So let's go ahead and take a look. Okay cranial nerve number one is olfactory so we should have the patient smell something although sometimes in the acute care setting this is not really done so can you occlude your right nostril please and close your eyes and tell me what you're smelling. Okay now the other side please and tell me what you're smelling. Okay so that olfactory is intact now for optic we could do the snarling chart but in this case we're we don't have a snarling chart so we're not gonna do that so we're gonna do his perla. Look straight at the tip of my nose over here good and I'm also checking for consensual light reflex and then look at the pen right here and then look at the ceiling over there. Okay so the pupils accommodate. Now for cranial nerve 3, 4 and 6 we're going to check his extraocular movement so with just your eyes follow my pen please. When you do that make sure that you go nice and slow and you don't hold the light too close to the patient's eyes because that can get pretty disorienting. Okay so here we are 3, 4 and 6. Cranial nerve number 5 trigeminal has three branches on the side of the face can I have you turn your head over this way and the three branches run right here on the forehead on the cheek as well as on the jaw so trigeminal you can remember it 1, 2 and 3 and it is a sensory nerve so we'll assess the sensations or have you turn your head back over this way. Can you feel me touch you here and is it the same on both sides? Yeah. And then how about here? It's the same. And here? The same. Okay very good. Now show me your teeth. Raise your eyebrows. Puff your cheeks. Okay puff your cheeks again and don't let me push them in good close your eyes real tight real tight and don't let me let them open okay very good now I'm going to whisper something in your ear and repeat back what I say please. Okay let's see the other side. Excellent so that's the acoustic nerve with his hearing although I have already assessed by just speaking with him and him following my directions. So cranial nerve number 9 and 10 glasopharyngeal and vagus nerve can be combined and that is assessing the pharynx and the larynx so can you swallow for me? Okay very good and then we're going to take a look inside your mouth open up stick out your tongue and say ah okay keep the tongue out and move it left and right okay very good so we'll check the tongue movement there and then we're going to check the spinal accessory muscle which is cranial nerve number 11 shrug your shoulders please good and then turn your head against my hand and the other side and we'll compare sides here okay and this concludes the cranial nerve assessment the only other cranial nerve that we haven't really discussed is hypoglossal which is cranial nerve number 12 and that is the tongue movement and the articulation with the tongue and the swallowing that I've already assessed by speaking with him and having him swallow earlier. Thanks for watching this video on the assessment of the cranial nerves please also make sure to check the other videos in the physical assessment playlist to get familiar with all the different physical assessment that we perform in nursing. Thanks so much for watching see you soon