ATI PRACTICAL NURSING (PN) PHARMACOLOGY PROCTORED EXAM RETAKE NGN
COMPLETE PRACTICE TEST BANK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | VERIFIED
SOLUTIONS | UPDATED 2026/2027 COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE
Examiner/Administrator: Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI Nursing Education)
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ATI PRACTICAL NURSING (PN) PHARMACOLOGY PROCTORED EXAM RETAKE NGN
COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
2026/2027 EDITION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
100 MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
EXACT OFFICIAL COUNT: 100 QUESTIONS || PASSING SCORE: 70% || TESTING TIME:
120 MINUTES || ATI NURSING EDUCATION || ALIGNED WITH CURRENT PN
PHARMACOLOGY BLUEPRINTS AND NGN COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK || VERIFIED
EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE MATERIAL || COMPREHENSIVE EXAM PREPARATION ||
PROFESSIONAL LICENSING REVIEW RESOURCE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
PHARMACOLOGY FUNDAMENTALS & SAFE MEDICATION
ADMINISTRATION (Q1–Q10)
Q1. A PN is preparing to administer digoxin to a client. Which finding requires
withholding the medication?
A. Heart rate 58 bpm
B. Blood pressure 130/80 mmHg
C. Respiratory rate 18/min
D. Oxygen saturation 96%
Correct Answer: 🔴 A. Heart rate 58 bpm
Explanation: 🔹 Digoxin lowers heart rate and increases cardiac contractility. It should be
withheld if the apical pulse is below 60 bpm in adults to prevent life-threatening
bradycardia or heart block. The other vital signs are within acceptable ranges and do not
indicate toxicity or contraindication.
,Q2. A client is prescribed morphine IV. Which assessment is the PRIORITY before
administration?
A. Pain level
B. Respiratory rate
C. Bowel sounds
D. Skin color
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Respiratory rate
Explanation: 🔹 Opioids suppress respiratory function. The PN must assess RR first
because respiratory depression is the most dangerous adverse effect. Pain level is
secondary, while bowel sounds and skin color are not immediate safety priorities.
Q3. Which instruction should the PN give a client taking oral tetracycline?
A. Take with milk
B. Take with antacids
C. Take on an empty stomach
D. Take with iron supplements
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Take on an empty stomach
Explanation: 🔹 Tetracycline absorption is reduced by calcium, iron, and antacids. It
should be taken on an empty stomach to ensure therapeutic effectiveness.
Q4. A client is receiving heparin therapy. Which lab value indicates therapeutic effect?
A. INR 5.0
B. aPTT elevated to 1.5–2.5 times normal
C. Platelets 500,000/mm³
D. Hemoglobin 18 g/dL
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. aPTT elevated to 1.5–2.5 times normal
Explanation: 🔹 Heparin is monitored using aPTT. Therapeutic anticoagulation is
achieved when aPTT is 1.5–2.5 times baseline.
,Q5. A client taking ACE inhibitors reports a persistent dry cough. What is the best
nursing action?
A. Discontinue medication immediately
B. Encourage fluid restriction
C. Notify the provider for possible change of medication
D. Administer cough suppressant
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Notify the provider for possible change of medication
Explanation: 🔹 ACE inhibitors commonly cause dry cough due to bradykinin buildup.
Provider may switch to ARBs.
Q6. Which medication requires monitoring for ototoxicity?
A. Furosemide
B. Metformin
C. Lisinopril
D. Omeprazole
Correct Answer: 🔴 A. Furosemide
Explanation: 🔹 Loop diuretics like furosemide can cause ototoxicity, especially in high
doses or IV administration.
Q7. A client receiving insulin becomes diaphoretic and confused. What is the first
action?
A. Give insulin
B. Check blood glucose
C. Give glucagon
D. Call provider
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Check blood glucose
Explanation: 🔹 Symptoms suggest hypoglycemia. The first step is confirmation via blood
glucose before treatment.
, Q8. Which medication is contraindicated in pregnancy?
A. Acetaminophen
B. Warfarin
C. Penicillin
D. Ondansetron
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Warfarin
Explanation: 🔹 Warfarin is teratogenic and can cause fetal bleeding and malformations.
Q9. A nurse is teaching about aspirin therapy. Which instruction is correct?
A. Take on an empty stomach
B. Monitor for bleeding
C. Increase vitamin K intake
D. Avoid fluids
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Monitor for bleeding
Explanation: 🔹 Aspirin inhibits platelet aggregation, increasing bleeding risk.
Q10. Which route provides the fastest drug absorption?
A. Oral
B. Intramuscular
C. Intravenous
D. Subcutaneous
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Intravenous
Explanation: 🔹 IV administration delivers medication directly into circulation, producing
immediate effect.
CARDIOVASCULAR & RESPIRATORY PHARMACOLOGY (Q11–Q20)
Q11. A client on nitroglycerin reports headache. What is the best action?
A. Discontinue medication
COMPLETE PRACTICE TEST BANK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | VERIFIED
SOLUTIONS | UPDATED 2026/2027 COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE
Examiner/Administrator: Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI Nursing Education)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ATI PRACTICAL NURSING (PN) PHARMACOLOGY PROCTORED EXAM RETAKE NGN
COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
2026/2027 EDITION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
100 MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
EXACT OFFICIAL COUNT: 100 QUESTIONS || PASSING SCORE: 70% || TESTING TIME:
120 MINUTES || ATI NURSING EDUCATION || ALIGNED WITH CURRENT PN
PHARMACOLOGY BLUEPRINTS AND NGN COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK || VERIFIED
EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE MATERIAL || COMPREHENSIVE EXAM PREPARATION ||
PROFESSIONAL LICENSING REVIEW RESOURCE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
PHARMACOLOGY FUNDAMENTALS & SAFE MEDICATION
ADMINISTRATION (Q1–Q10)
Q1. A PN is preparing to administer digoxin to a client. Which finding requires
withholding the medication?
A. Heart rate 58 bpm
B. Blood pressure 130/80 mmHg
C. Respiratory rate 18/min
D. Oxygen saturation 96%
Correct Answer: 🔴 A. Heart rate 58 bpm
Explanation: 🔹 Digoxin lowers heart rate and increases cardiac contractility. It should be
withheld if the apical pulse is below 60 bpm in adults to prevent life-threatening
bradycardia or heart block. The other vital signs are within acceptable ranges and do not
indicate toxicity or contraindication.
,Q2. A client is prescribed morphine IV. Which assessment is the PRIORITY before
administration?
A. Pain level
B. Respiratory rate
C. Bowel sounds
D. Skin color
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Respiratory rate
Explanation: 🔹 Opioids suppress respiratory function. The PN must assess RR first
because respiratory depression is the most dangerous adverse effect. Pain level is
secondary, while bowel sounds and skin color are not immediate safety priorities.
Q3. Which instruction should the PN give a client taking oral tetracycline?
A. Take with milk
B. Take with antacids
C. Take on an empty stomach
D. Take with iron supplements
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Take on an empty stomach
Explanation: 🔹 Tetracycline absorption is reduced by calcium, iron, and antacids. It
should be taken on an empty stomach to ensure therapeutic effectiveness.
Q4. A client is receiving heparin therapy. Which lab value indicates therapeutic effect?
A. INR 5.0
B. aPTT elevated to 1.5–2.5 times normal
C. Platelets 500,000/mm³
D. Hemoglobin 18 g/dL
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. aPTT elevated to 1.5–2.5 times normal
Explanation: 🔹 Heparin is monitored using aPTT. Therapeutic anticoagulation is
achieved when aPTT is 1.5–2.5 times baseline.
,Q5. A client taking ACE inhibitors reports a persistent dry cough. What is the best
nursing action?
A. Discontinue medication immediately
B. Encourage fluid restriction
C. Notify the provider for possible change of medication
D. Administer cough suppressant
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Notify the provider for possible change of medication
Explanation: 🔹 ACE inhibitors commonly cause dry cough due to bradykinin buildup.
Provider may switch to ARBs.
Q6. Which medication requires monitoring for ototoxicity?
A. Furosemide
B. Metformin
C. Lisinopril
D. Omeprazole
Correct Answer: 🔴 A. Furosemide
Explanation: 🔹 Loop diuretics like furosemide can cause ototoxicity, especially in high
doses or IV administration.
Q7. A client receiving insulin becomes diaphoretic and confused. What is the first
action?
A. Give insulin
B. Check blood glucose
C. Give glucagon
D. Call provider
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Check blood glucose
Explanation: 🔹 Symptoms suggest hypoglycemia. The first step is confirmation via blood
glucose before treatment.
, Q8. Which medication is contraindicated in pregnancy?
A. Acetaminophen
B. Warfarin
C. Penicillin
D. Ondansetron
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Warfarin
Explanation: 🔹 Warfarin is teratogenic and can cause fetal bleeding and malformations.
Q9. A nurse is teaching about aspirin therapy. Which instruction is correct?
A. Take on an empty stomach
B. Monitor for bleeding
C. Increase vitamin K intake
D. Avoid fluids
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Monitor for bleeding
Explanation: 🔹 Aspirin inhibits platelet aggregation, increasing bleeding risk.
Q10. Which route provides the fastest drug absorption?
A. Oral
B. Intramuscular
C. Intravenous
D. Subcutaneous
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Intravenous
Explanation: 🔹 IV administration delivers medication directly into circulation, producing
immediate effect.
CARDIOVASCULAR & RESPIRATORY PHARMACOLOGY (Q11–Q20)
Q11. A client on nitroglycerin reports headache. What is the best action?
A. Discontinue medication
