HESI RN
PHARMACOLOGY STUDY
GUIDE
NCLEX (NGN), Case-based Scenarios 400+
Qs & Ans to Pass the Exam
This hesi test contains:
passing score Guarantee
400+ Ques and Ans
Format Set of Multiple-choice
questions with incorporating Next Generation
NCLEX (NGN) and Case studies questions
Expert-Verified Explanations & Solutions
,1. NGN-Style Question
The nurse is caring for an adult client who is taking digoxin. Which
laboratory value should be reported to the healthcare provider
immediately?
A. Sodium level: 140 mEq/L
B. Digoxin level: 1.0 ng/mL
C. Potassium level: 3.2 mEq/L
D. Creatinine level: 0.9 mg/dL
Answer: C. Potassium level: 3.2 mEq/L
Expert-Verified Explanation:
• Hypokalemia (K+ < 3.5 mEq/L) in a client who takes digoxin can
precipitate digoxin toxicity and dangerous cardiac dysrhythmias.
• Even if the digoxin level is within normal limits, a low potassium
level increases the risk of toxicity.
,• The normal potassium range is 3.5 to 5.0 mEq/L; 3.2 mEq/L is
abnormally low and warrants immediate notification of the
healthcare provider.
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2.
The healthcare provider prescribes the antibiotic tetracycline HCl for
an adult client. Which instruction should the nurse include in the
teaching plan for this client?
A. “Take the medication with milk products to reduce GI upset.”
B. “Protect the skin from sunlight while taking the drug.”
C. “Discontinue the medication once symptoms subside.”
D. “Lie flat for 30 minutes after taking a dose.”
Answer: B. “Protect the skin from sunlight while taking the drug.”
Expert-Verified Explanation:
, • Tetracyclines can cause photosensitivity, so advising the client to
avoid direct sunlight or wear protective clothing helps reduce
sunburn risk.
• They should also be taken on an empty stomach (except if GI upset
is severe) and not with milk products (which can reduce absorption).
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━
3.
The nurse is administering sodium polystyrene sulfonate to a client
with acute kidney injury (AKI). Which lab finding indicates that the
medication has been effective?
A. Serum glucose: 92 mg/dL
B. Serum potassium: 3.8 mEq/L
C. Serum hemoglobin: 15 g/dL
D. Serum ammonia: 60 mcg/dL
Answer: B. Serum potassium: 3.8 mEq/L
PHARMACOLOGY STUDY
GUIDE
NCLEX (NGN), Case-based Scenarios 400+
Qs & Ans to Pass the Exam
This hesi test contains:
passing score Guarantee
400+ Ques and Ans
Format Set of Multiple-choice
questions with incorporating Next Generation
NCLEX (NGN) and Case studies questions
Expert-Verified Explanations & Solutions
,1. NGN-Style Question
The nurse is caring for an adult client who is taking digoxin. Which
laboratory value should be reported to the healthcare provider
immediately?
A. Sodium level: 140 mEq/L
B. Digoxin level: 1.0 ng/mL
C. Potassium level: 3.2 mEq/L
D. Creatinine level: 0.9 mg/dL
Answer: C. Potassium level: 3.2 mEq/L
Expert-Verified Explanation:
• Hypokalemia (K+ < 3.5 mEq/L) in a client who takes digoxin can
precipitate digoxin toxicity and dangerous cardiac dysrhythmias.
• Even if the digoxin level is within normal limits, a low potassium
level increases the risk of toxicity.
,• The normal potassium range is 3.5 to 5.0 mEq/L; 3.2 mEq/L is
abnormally low and warrants immediate notification of the
healthcare provider.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━
2.
The healthcare provider prescribes the antibiotic tetracycline HCl for
an adult client. Which instruction should the nurse include in the
teaching plan for this client?
A. “Take the medication with milk products to reduce GI upset.”
B. “Protect the skin from sunlight while taking the drug.”
C. “Discontinue the medication once symptoms subside.”
D. “Lie flat for 30 minutes after taking a dose.”
Answer: B. “Protect the skin from sunlight while taking the drug.”
Expert-Verified Explanation:
, • Tetracyclines can cause photosensitivity, so advising the client to
avoid direct sunlight or wear protective clothing helps reduce
sunburn risk.
• They should also be taken on an empty stomach (except if GI upset
is severe) and not with milk products (which can reduce absorption).
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━
3.
The nurse is administering sodium polystyrene sulfonate to a client
with acute kidney injury (AKI). Which lab finding indicates that the
medication has been effective?
A. Serum glucose: 92 mg/dL
B. Serum potassium: 3.8 mEq/L
C. Serum hemoglobin: 15 g/dL
D. Serum ammonia: 60 mcg/dL
Answer: B. Serum potassium: 3.8 mEq/L
