HESI PHARMACOLOGY V1 EXAM
(3 Set Exams)
Actual Qs & Ans to Pass the Exam
HESI PHARMACOLOGY V1 EXAM 1………………………………… pg.02
HESI PHARMACOLOGY V1 EXAM 2 ………………………………… pg.22
HESI PHARMACOLOGY V1 EXAM 3…………………………………pg.45
This hesi test contains:
passing score Guarantee
Each Exam has 55 Ques and Ans
Format Set of Multiple-choice
questions with incorporating Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) and
Case studies questions
Expert-Verified Explanations & Solutions
, HESI PHARMACOLOGY V1 EXAM
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1) A client taking atorvastatin develops an increased serum creatine phosphokinase (CK) level. The nurse
should assess the client for the onset of which problem?
A. Muscle tenderness
B. Nausea and vomiting
C. Excessive bruising
D. Peripheral edema
Answer: A. Muscle tenderness
Expert-Verified Explanation:
Statins (e.g., atorvastatin) can cause myopathy, which may progress to rhabdomyolysis in severe cases.
When CK (creatine phosphokinase) elevates in a client taking a statin, it often signifies muscle injury.
One of the earliest clinical signs of myopathy is muscle pain or tenderness, especially in large muscle
groups (e.g., thighs, calves, or upper arms). Nurses should closely watch for muscle cramping, weakness,
or any abnormal muscle symptoms and promptly report these findings, as untreated severe myopathy
can lead to life-threatening complications.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2) An increase in which serum laboratory value indicates to the nurse that a prescription for atorvastatin
is having the desired effect for a client at risk for coronary artery disease?
A. LDL (Low-density lipoprotein)
B. Triglycerides
C. HDL (High-density lipoprotein)
D. VLDL (Very low-density lipoprotein)
Answer: C. HDL (High-density lipoprotein)
,Expert-Verified Explanation:
Atorvastatin is part of the statin class that primarily lowers LDL (“bad cholesterol”) and can also
modestly raise HDL (“good cholesterol”). A higher HDL level is protective against plaque formation in
coronary arteries and is one of the therapeutic goals. Therefore, an increase in HDL is a positive
indicator of medication effectiveness, together with a decrease in LDL.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
3) (NGN - Case Study)
Patient Data History and Physical:
• 36-year-old female with moderate persistent asthma on fluticasone/salmeterol twice daily, albuterol
as needed.
• Reports more severe symptoms and frequent albuterol use. FEV₁ only 60–65%. Complains of dizziness,
palpitations, no wheezes, O₂ sat 99%.
Review the scenario and identify:
► The likely condition.
► Two actions to take.
► Two parameters to monitor.
Condition: Methemoglobinemia
Actions to Take (two):
• Draw blood for a complete blood count (CBC)
• Administer methylene blue
Parameters to Monitor (two):
• Methemoglobin level
• Heart rate and rhythm
Expert-Verified Explanation:
In methemoglobinemia, hemoglobin is oxidized to methemoglobin, which cannot carry oxygen
, effectively. A classic clue is normal oxygen saturation on pulse oximetry, but the client still feels dizzy,
has palpitations, and might look pale or cyanotic. Certain drugs used in respiratory conditions or from
multiple inhalations can contribute. Confirming the diagnosis involves labs (e.g., methemoglobin levels,
CBC). Methylene blue is the antidotal therapy. Monitoring heart rate and rhythm is essential because
significant hypoxia or changes can affect cardiac status.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
4) The nurse provides discharge instructions to a client who has been prescribed gabapentin 300 mg by
mouth three times a day for postherpetic neuralgia. Which symptoms should the nurse tell the client to
report to the healthcare provider?
A. Sexual dysfunction
B. Gastric irritation
C. Rapid weight gain
D. Photosensitivity
Answer: B. Gastric irritation
Expert-Verified Explanation:
Gabapentin can commonly affect the gastrointestinal (GI) system, causing symptoms such as nausea,
dyspepsia, or discomfort. Although relatively mild in many clients, significant GI upset or persistent
gastric irritation should be reported. The healthcare provider may adjust dosage or recommend
strategies (e.g., taking with a light snack) to reduce the side effect and ensure therapy compliance.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
5) A client with chronic lower back pain has been taking the NSAID ibuprofen by mouth twice a day for
several months. Which assessment is most important for the nurse to complete?
A. Assess back pain using a numeric scale
B. Palpate volume of pedal pulses
C. Determine presence of abdominal pain
D. Evaluate ongoing sleep patterns
(3 Set Exams)
Actual Qs & Ans to Pass the Exam
HESI PHARMACOLOGY V1 EXAM 1………………………………… pg.02
HESI PHARMACOLOGY V1 EXAM 2 ………………………………… pg.22
HESI PHARMACOLOGY V1 EXAM 3…………………………………pg.45
This hesi test contains:
passing score Guarantee
Each Exam has 55 Ques and Ans
Format Set of Multiple-choice
questions with incorporating Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) and
Case studies questions
Expert-Verified Explanations & Solutions
, HESI PHARMACOLOGY V1 EXAM
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1) A client taking atorvastatin develops an increased serum creatine phosphokinase (CK) level. The nurse
should assess the client for the onset of which problem?
A. Muscle tenderness
B. Nausea and vomiting
C. Excessive bruising
D. Peripheral edema
Answer: A. Muscle tenderness
Expert-Verified Explanation:
Statins (e.g., atorvastatin) can cause myopathy, which may progress to rhabdomyolysis in severe cases.
When CK (creatine phosphokinase) elevates in a client taking a statin, it often signifies muscle injury.
One of the earliest clinical signs of myopathy is muscle pain or tenderness, especially in large muscle
groups (e.g., thighs, calves, or upper arms). Nurses should closely watch for muscle cramping, weakness,
or any abnormal muscle symptoms and promptly report these findings, as untreated severe myopathy
can lead to life-threatening complications.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2) An increase in which serum laboratory value indicates to the nurse that a prescription for atorvastatin
is having the desired effect for a client at risk for coronary artery disease?
A. LDL (Low-density lipoprotein)
B. Triglycerides
C. HDL (High-density lipoprotein)
D. VLDL (Very low-density lipoprotein)
Answer: C. HDL (High-density lipoprotein)
,Expert-Verified Explanation:
Atorvastatin is part of the statin class that primarily lowers LDL (“bad cholesterol”) and can also
modestly raise HDL (“good cholesterol”). A higher HDL level is protective against plaque formation in
coronary arteries and is one of the therapeutic goals. Therefore, an increase in HDL is a positive
indicator of medication effectiveness, together with a decrease in LDL.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
3) (NGN - Case Study)
Patient Data History and Physical:
• 36-year-old female with moderate persistent asthma on fluticasone/salmeterol twice daily, albuterol
as needed.
• Reports more severe symptoms and frequent albuterol use. FEV₁ only 60–65%. Complains of dizziness,
palpitations, no wheezes, O₂ sat 99%.
Review the scenario and identify:
► The likely condition.
► Two actions to take.
► Two parameters to monitor.
Condition: Methemoglobinemia
Actions to Take (two):
• Draw blood for a complete blood count (CBC)
• Administer methylene blue
Parameters to Monitor (two):
• Methemoglobin level
• Heart rate and rhythm
Expert-Verified Explanation:
In methemoglobinemia, hemoglobin is oxidized to methemoglobin, which cannot carry oxygen
, effectively. A classic clue is normal oxygen saturation on pulse oximetry, but the client still feels dizzy,
has palpitations, and might look pale or cyanotic. Certain drugs used in respiratory conditions or from
multiple inhalations can contribute. Confirming the diagnosis involves labs (e.g., methemoglobin levels,
CBC). Methylene blue is the antidotal therapy. Monitoring heart rate and rhythm is essential because
significant hypoxia or changes can affect cardiac status.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
4) The nurse provides discharge instructions to a client who has been prescribed gabapentin 300 mg by
mouth three times a day for postherpetic neuralgia. Which symptoms should the nurse tell the client to
report to the healthcare provider?
A. Sexual dysfunction
B. Gastric irritation
C. Rapid weight gain
D. Photosensitivity
Answer: B. Gastric irritation
Expert-Verified Explanation:
Gabapentin can commonly affect the gastrointestinal (GI) system, causing symptoms such as nausea,
dyspepsia, or discomfort. Although relatively mild in many clients, significant GI upset or persistent
gastric irritation should be reported. The healthcare provider may adjust dosage or recommend
strategies (e.g., taking with a light snack) to reduce the side effect and ensure therapy compliance.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
5) A client with chronic lower back pain has been taking the NSAID ibuprofen by mouth twice a day for
several months. Which assessment is most important for the nurse to complete?
A. Assess back pain using a numeric scale
B. Palpate volume of pedal pulses
C. Determine presence of abdominal pain
D. Evaluate ongoing sleep patterns
