RN Nursing · Medications for Upper GI Disorders · Practice question
A nurse is educating a patient who was recently diagnosed with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and is prescribed omeprazole. Which of the following statements should the nurse include in the teaching?
-
"You can stop taking omeprazole once you feel better without consulting your healthcare provider."
-
"You should crush omeprazole tablets to make them easier to swallow."
-
"Omeprazole should be taken with antacids to increase its effectiveness."
-
✓
"Take omeprazole at least 30 minutes before meals to maximize its effectiveness."
Answer & explanation
Correct: "Take omeprazole at least 30 minutes before meals to maximize its effectiveness."
Omeprazole is a proton pump inhibitor that irreversibly blocks the hydrogen-potassium ATPase enzyme in the gastric parietal cells, reducing acid secretion. For maximum therapeutic effect, it must be taken 30 to 60 minutes before the first meal of the day because proton pumps are most active when stimulated by food ingestion, and the drug must be absorbed and reach peak plasma concentration before the pumps are engaged. Taking omeprazole before a meal ensures that the highest concentration of drug is available to inhibit the actively secreting pumps. Stopping omeprazole when symptoms improve without consulting the healthcare provider is unsafe and incomplete treatment; premature discontinuation can lead to symptom relapse and potential complications such as esophageal damage. Crushing omeprazole tablets is contraindicated because the tablets or capsules are enteric-coated delayed-release formulations; crushing destroys this coating, degrades the drug in gastric acid before it reaches the small intestine for absorption, and reduces efficacy. Taking omeprazole with antacids does not increase its effectiveness and may alter the gastric pH environment that affects drug absorption timing; there is no clinical evidence supporting this combination as beneficial.
Practise Medications for Upper GI Disorders questions
Work through full question sets with instant rationales, timed exams, and progress tracking.
Start practising freeRelated practice questions
- The nurse teaches a patient about the differences between histamine-2 blockers (H2 blockers) and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). Which statement from the patient indicates that teaching has been effective?
- The client is to receive pantoprazole 40 mg intermittent infusion over 15 minutes. Available is pantoprazole 40 mg/100 mL of normal saline. At what rate will the nurse program the pump? Round to the whole number. mL/hr
- A nurse is preparing to administer esomeprazole 20 mg IV bolus in 100 mL 5% dextrose in water for a client who has peptic ulcer disease. Available is esomeprazole 40 mg/5 mL. How many milliliters should the nurse add to the 5% dextrose in water? (Round the answer to the nearest tenth. Use a leading zero if it applies. Do not use a trailing zero.)
- A nurse is reviewing the electronic medical record of a client who has been taking famotidine for 6 months. Which of the following findings indicates the therapy has been ineffective?