2026 NCLEX QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT AND VERIFIED ANSWERS

A nurse is preparing to administer the first dose of piperacillin/tazobactam to a patient in an 

infusion clinic. The nurse should take which of the following precautions?

A. Ask the patient about past allergic reactions to penicillins.

B. Ask the patient about past allergic reactions to aminoglycosides.

C. Mix the piperacillin/tazobactam with lidocaine to reduce pain of infusion.

D. Instruct the patient to eat a snack to decrease stomach upset from piperacillin/tazobactam.

A

A woman is to receive amoxicillin-clavulanate 500 mg PO every 8 hours for bronchitis. The 

nurse retrieves two 250-mg tablets from the medication cart. This is incorrect for which of the 

following reasons?

A. The amount of sulbactam in amoxicillin-clavulanate 250 mg is 62.5 mg per tablet, twice the 

intended amount.

B. This provides twice the intended dose of clavulanate.

C. The 250-mg tablets have less absorption than the 500-mg tablets.

D. Administration of amoxicillin-clavulanate is only intravenous, so selecting tablets means that 

the wrong drug is being administered.

B

A cardiac surgeon orders cefazolin 1 g IV "on call" to the operating room for a patient scheduled 

for a heart valve replacement. The surgery is scheduled for 7:00 am the next morning. What is 

the rationale for giving the antibiotic at 6:30 am? The last dose was administered more than 8 

hours ago.

A. The cefazolin must be given 60 minutes before the procedure for legal reasons.

B. The cefazolin must be given within 60 minutes before the first skin incision to reach 

therapeutic concentrations.

C. The cefazolin trough level will be checked at 6:00 am, which would allow the level to come 

back before administration of the "on call" dose.

D. The last dose was administered yesterday

B

Which of the following classes of cephalosporins have the best activity against gram-positive 

organisms?

A. first-generation cephalosporins

B. second-generation cephalosporins

C. third-generation cephalosporins

D. fourth-generation cephalosporins

A

In acute renal failure, doses of which of the following antibiotics must be reduced? (Select all 

that apply.)

A. nafcillin

B. cefazolin

C. meropenem

D. aztreonam

B, C, D

A nurse working in the neurointensive care unit is caring for a patient with a head injury who has 

been experiencing seizures and now has pneumonia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The 

physician has prescribed imipenem 1 g IV every 6 hours plus gentamicin for the pneumonia. 

Before administering the antibiotics, the nurse should do which of the following?

A. Avoid mixing the imipenem and gentamicin in the same IV bag to prevent inactivation of the 

gentamicin.

B. Remind the physician of the patient's seizures and inquire whether a different antibiotic might 

be safer.

C. Suggest to the physician that imipenem is used to treat gram-positive infections and will not 

be effective in this patient.

D. Set the infusion pump to deliver the imipenem over 15 minutes

B