NUR 257 CHRONIC CONDITIONS EXAM 3 FALL | GALEN COLLEGE OF NURSING
COMPLETE PRACTICE TEST BANK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | VERIFIED
SOLUTIONS | UPDATED 2026/2027 STUDY GUIDE
Examiner/Administrator: Galen College of Nursing
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
NUR 257 CHRONIC CONDITIONS EXAM 3
GALEN COLLEGE OF NURSING — FALL TERM
2026/2027 EDITION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
100 MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
EXACT OFFICIAL COUNT: 100 QUESTIONS
PASSING SCORE: 70%
TESTING TIME: 120 MINUTES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GALEN COLLEGE OF NURSING || ALIGNED WITH CURRENT CHRONIC CONDITIONS
NURSING CURRICULUM BLUEPRINTS || MEDICAL-SURGICAL NURSING APPLICATIONS
|| PROFESSIONAL EXAM REVIEW GUIDE || 100% VERIFIED SOLUTIONS ||
COMPREHENSIVE NCLEX-STYLE PREPARATION || DEVELOPED FOR PROFESSIONAL
ACADEMIC EXAMINATION USE || UPDATED FALL 2026/2027 PRACTICE MATERIAL
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC STUDY EDITION
PREPARED FOR EDUCATIONAL & REVIEW PURPOSES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Cardiovascular Disorders & Chronic Cardiac Management (Q1–Q10)
Q1. A nurse is caring for a patient admitted with chronic heart failure who suddenly
develops worsening dyspnea, bilateral crackles, and pink frothy sputum. Which
intervention should the nurse prioritize first?
,A. Administer prescribed stool softeners
B. Position the patient upright with legs dependent
C. Encourage oral fluid intake
D. Obtain a routine daily weight
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Position the patient upright with legs dependent
Explanation: 🔹 The patient is demonstrating acute pulmonary edema secondary to
worsening heart failure. Positioning the patient upright decreases venous return
(preload) and improves lung expansion, making it the priority intervention while
additional therapies such as oxygen and diuretics are initiated. Stool softeners and
daily weights are important but not immediate priorities. Encouraging oral fluids
would worsen pulmonary congestion.
Q2. A patient with chronic atrial fibrillation is prescribed warfarin therapy. Which
laboratory value requires immediate nursing attention?
A. Potassium level of 4.2 mEq/L
B. INR of 5.8
C. Hemoglobin of 13.4 g/dL
D. Sodium level of 138 mEq/L
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. INR of 5.8
Explanation: 🔹 An INR of 5.8 indicates excessive anticoagulation and significantly
increases the risk for bleeding complications. Therapeutic INR for atrial fibrillation is
generally between 2.0 and 3.0. The nurse should notify the provider immediately. The
remaining laboratory values are within expected ranges and do not require urgent
action.
Q3. A nurse teaching a patient about hypertension management recognizes the need
for further instruction when the patient states:
A. “I will reduce sodium intake in my diet.”
B. “I should stop taking my medication once my blood pressure improves.”
,C. “Regular exercise may help lower my blood pressure.”
D. “Stress reduction can improve blood pressure control.”
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. “I should stop taking my medication once my blood pressure
improves.”
Explanation: 🔹 Hypertension is often a lifelong condition requiring ongoing therapy
even when blood pressure becomes controlled. Abruptly stopping antihypertensive
medications can lead to rebound hypertension and cardiovascular complications.
Sodium restriction, exercise, and stress management are appropriate self-care
measures.
Q4. A patient recovering from myocardial infarction reports sudden chest pain
unrelieved by nitroglycerin. Which assessment finding would most strongly suggest
cardiogenic shock?
A. Warm flushed skin
B. Bradycardia with bounding pulses
C. Hypotension with cool clammy extremities
D. Increased urinary output
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Hypotension with cool clammy extremities
Explanation: 🔹 Cardiogenic shock occurs when the heart fails to pump effectively,
resulting in poor tissue perfusion. Hypotension, cool clammy skin, decreased urine
output, and altered mental status are hallmark findings. Warm flushed skin suggests
distributive shock, while bounding pulses and increased urinary output are
inconsistent with cardiogenic shock.
Q5. A nurse is evaluating discharge teaching for a patient with chronic stable angina.
Which statement demonstrates proper understanding?
A. “I should take nitroglycerin after the chest pain becomes severe.”
B. “I can take up to three nitroglycerin tablets five minutes apart.”
C. “Chest pain lasting over one hour is expected.”
D. “Nitroglycerin tablets should be stored in the bathroom medicine cabinet.”
, Correct Answer: 🔴 B. “I can take up to three nitroglycerin tablets five minutes
apart.”
Explanation: 🔹 Nitroglycerin should be taken at the onset of chest pain, and patients
may take one tablet every five minutes for a maximum of three doses while seeking
emergency care if pain persists. Nitroglycerin should not be stored in humid
environments because moisture decreases medication potency. Persistent chest pain
may indicate myocardial infarction and requires immediate evaluation.
Q6. A patient with peripheral arterial disease reports leg pain during walking that
resolves with rest. The nurse recognizes this symptom as:
A. Dependent rubor
B. Intermittent claudication
C. Venous stasis
D. Deep vein thrombosis
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Intermittent claudication
Explanation: 🔹 Intermittent claudication is ischemic muscle pain triggered by
exercise and relieved by rest, commonly associated with peripheral arterial disease.
Dependent rubor refers to redness when extremities are lowered. Venous stasis
causes edema and skin changes, while deep vein thrombosis typically presents with
swelling and tenderness rather than exercise-induced pain.
Q7. A nurse is monitoring a patient receiving digoxin for chronic heart failure. Which
assessment finding indicates possible digoxin toxicity?
A. Heart rate of 58 beats/min with nausea
B. Blood pressure of 138/84 mm Hg
C. Increased appetite
D. Respiratory rate of 18 breaths/min
Correct Answer: 🔴 A. Heart rate of 58 beats/min with nausea
COMPLETE PRACTICE TEST BANK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | VERIFIED
SOLUTIONS | UPDATED 2026/2027 STUDY GUIDE
Examiner/Administrator: Galen College of Nursing
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
NUR 257 CHRONIC CONDITIONS EXAM 3
GALEN COLLEGE OF NURSING — FALL TERM
2026/2027 EDITION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
COMPLETE PRACTICE EXAM
100 MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
EXACT OFFICIAL COUNT: 100 QUESTIONS
PASSING SCORE: 70%
TESTING TIME: 120 MINUTES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GALEN COLLEGE OF NURSING || ALIGNED WITH CURRENT CHRONIC CONDITIONS
NURSING CURRICULUM BLUEPRINTS || MEDICAL-SURGICAL NURSING APPLICATIONS
|| PROFESSIONAL EXAM REVIEW GUIDE || 100% VERIFIED SOLUTIONS ||
COMPREHENSIVE NCLEX-STYLE PREPARATION || DEVELOPED FOR PROFESSIONAL
ACADEMIC EXAMINATION USE || UPDATED FALL 2026/2027 PRACTICE MATERIAL
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC STUDY EDITION
PREPARED FOR EDUCATIONAL & REVIEW PURPOSES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Cardiovascular Disorders & Chronic Cardiac Management (Q1–Q10)
Q1. A nurse is caring for a patient admitted with chronic heart failure who suddenly
develops worsening dyspnea, bilateral crackles, and pink frothy sputum. Which
intervention should the nurse prioritize first?
,A. Administer prescribed stool softeners
B. Position the patient upright with legs dependent
C. Encourage oral fluid intake
D. Obtain a routine daily weight
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Position the patient upright with legs dependent
Explanation: 🔹 The patient is demonstrating acute pulmonary edema secondary to
worsening heart failure. Positioning the patient upright decreases venous return
(preload) and improves lung expansion, making it the priority intervention while
additional therapies such as oxygen and diuretics are initiated. Stool softeners and
daily weights are important but not immediate priorities. Encouraging oral fluids
would worsen pulmonary congestion.
Q2. A patient with chronic atrial fibrillation is prescribed warfarin therapy. Which
laboratory value requires immediate nursing attention?
A. Potassium level of 4.2 mEq/L
B. INR of 5.8
C. Hemoglobin of 13.4 g/dL
D. Sodium level of 138 mEq/L
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. INR of 5.8
Explanation: 🔹 An INR of 5.8 indicates excessive anticoagulation and significantly
increases the risk for bleeding complications. Therapeutic INR for atrial fibrillation is
generally between 2.0 and 3.0. The nurse should notify the provider immediately. The
remaining laboratory values are within expected ranges and do not require urgent
action.
Q3. A nurse teaching a patient about hypertension management recognizes the need
for further instruction when the patient states:
A. “I will reduce sodium intake in my diet.”
B. “I should stop taking my medication once my blood pressure improves.”
,C. “Regular exercise may help lower my blood pressure.”
D. “Stress reduction can improve blood pressure control.”
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. “I should stop taking my medication once my blood pressure
improves.”
Explanation: 🔹 Hypertension is often a lifelong condition requiring ongoing therapy
even when blood pressure becomes controlled. Abruptly stopping antihypertensive
medications can lead to rebound hypertension and cardiovascular complications.
Sodium restriction, exercise, and stress management are appropriate self-care
measures.
Q4. A patient recovering from myocardial infarction reports sudden chest pain
unrelieved by nitroglycerin. Which assessment finding would most strongly suggest
cardiogenic shock?
A. Warm flushed skin
B. Bradycardia with bounding pulses
C. Hypotension with cool clammy extremities
D. Increased urinary output
Correct Answer: 🔴 C. Hypotension with cool clammy extremities
Explanation: 🔹 Cardiogenic shock occurs when the heart fails to pump effectively,
resulting in poor tissue perfusion. Hypotension, cool clammy skin, decreased urine
output, and altered mental status are hallmark findings. Warm flushed skin suggests
distributive shock, while bounding pulses and increased urinary output are
inconsistent with cardiogenic shock.
Q5. A nurse is evaluating discharge teaching for a patient with chronic stable angina.
Which statement demonstrates proper understanding?
A. “I should take nitroglycerin after the chest pain becomes severe.”
B. “I can take up to three nitroglycerin tablets five minutes apart.”
C. “Chest pain lasting over one hour is expected.”
D. “Nitroglycerin tablets should be stored in the bathroom medicine cabinet.”
, Correct Answer: 🔴 B. “I can take up to three nitroglycerin tablets five minutes
apart.”
Explanation: 🔹 Nitroglycerin should be taken at the onset of chest pain, and patients
may take one tablet every five minutes for a maximum of three doses while seeking
emergency care if pain persists. Nitroglycerin should not be stored in humid
environments because moisture decreases medication potency. Persistent chest pain
may indicate myocardial infarction and requires immediate evaluation.
Q6. A patient with peripheral arterial disease reports leg pain during walking that
resolves with rest. The nurse recognizes this symptom as:
A. Dependent rubor
B. Intermittent claudication
C. Venous stasis
D. Deep vein thrombosis
Correct Answer: 🔴 B. Intermittent claudication
Explanation: 🔹 Intermittent claudication is ischemic muscle pain triggered by
exercise and relieved by rest, commonly associated with peripheral arterial disease.
Dependent rubor refers to redness when extremities are lowered. Venous stasis
causes edema and skin changes, while deep vein thrombosis typically presents with
swelling and tenderness rather than exercise-induced pain.
Q7. A nurse is monitoring a patient receiving digoxin for chronic heart failure. Which
assessment finding indicates possible digoxin toxicity?
A. Heart rate of 58 beats/min with nausea
B. Blood pressure of 138/84 mm Hg
C. Increased appetite
D. Respiratory rate of 18 breaths/min
Correct Answer: 🔴 A. Heart rate of 58 beats/min with nausea
