Which medications are given at bedtime?

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Hey there! I'm studying for the NCLEX with Kaplan and the instructor keeps saying that we need to make a list of which medications are given at bedtime/ which affect blood sugar. Does anyone have a list I could look at? I have been trying google searches to no avail. Thank you in advance!

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I haven't figured this out either, except for obvious things like Ambien. A later test question also said Zantac should be given at bedtime. Any other thoughts from others? The teacher made it sound like finding the list was easy!

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Are you asking for which medications are given at bedtime AND affect blood sugar at the same time? Depends on whether or not your patient is diabetic! Lantus/other long acting insulins, some sliding scale insulins and oral antidiabetics could all be given at HS. I would ask your instructor- I don't understand why you would just need to know a list of these medications. Knowing what an HS Lantus or Humalog would mean for the patient is a different story.

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Not necessarily at the same time, just which ones would need further teaching if they said they will take it in the morning. It's a lot of those types of questions. I'll ask around among the Kaplan instructors to see if I can hunt something down, but I don't think they have a list because it would most likely already be available to us in the course.

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

First, I did not get a single question about which medications were more appropriate for night time vs morning on NCLEX. Neither did any of my friends. That because it would honestly be a rote memorization question based on an understanding of pharmacology and how the medications work in the body. Some need no food and water for a while, so night time is great. Some effect sleep (sleep aids, many psychotropic meds, some long term pain meds, and so on). Some meds give energy boosts or are better suited to have with food, or are for symptoms that occur during the day. But the vast majority of meds, the timing is not all that important as far as day or night. The timing between things like tums and just about everything else, and not taking certain meds at that same time as other meds is what really matters.

If if you do happen to get a question that talks about med timing, it would most likely be something synthroid needing to be an AM med an hour before having food. Trazadone being taken at night because it causes drowsiness. NSAIDS being taken with food because of stomach ulcer risk. And so on. You will not find a magical list of night time meds because there truly isn't a list of meds made to let us know what should be taken at night or in the morning.

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That's a good way of looking at it! Thanks for the advice! :)

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Statins have been proven to work better at bedtime and help lower cholesterol levels. This is from a UWORLD question i recently had. UWORLD is really helpful knowing common drugs that come up on nclex

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I am studying for NCLEX and also got sick of hearing this from Kaplan instructor...I FINALLY found a good website to use as reference for best times to give certain drugs. Hope this helps! Actually, There's a Right Time to Take "Once a Day" Meds | Reader's Digest

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Specializes in ICU.
First, I did not get a single question about which medications were more appropriate for night time vs morning on NCLEX. Neither did any of my friends. That because it would honestly be a rote memorization question based on an understanding of pharmacology and how the medications work in the body. Some need no food and water for a while, so night time is great. Some effect sleep (sleep aids, many psychotropic meds, some long term pain meds, and so on). Some meds give energy boosts or are better suited to have with food, or are for symptoms that occur during the day. But the vast majority of meds, the timing is not all that important as far as day or night. The timing between things like tums and just about everything else, and not taking certain meds at that same time as other meds is what really matters.

If if you do happen to get a question that talks about med timing, it would most likely be something synthroid needing to be an AM med an hour before having food. Trazadone being taken at night because it causes drowsiness. NSAIDS being taken with food because of stomach ulcer risk. And so on. You will not find a magical list of night time meds because there truly isn't a list of meds made to let us know what should be taken at night or in the morning.

True. Kaplan focuses too much on content. That is not what NCLEX is about.

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I know this is extremely late, but I hope this helps... I have this NCLEX review book called "The ABC of passing the NCLEX-RN Exam", which has a list of certain drugs that can be taken w/, w/o meals, in between meals, etc. What's good about his book is that the info is summarized and shows the info you should focus on:

*Drugs that are best taken W/ meals:

Allupurinol, Apresoline, ASA, Azulfidine, Benemid, Dilantin, Diuril, Flagyl, Inderal, Morphine, Pancreatin, Serpasil, Tagamet, Tylenol

*Drugs that are best taken BEFORE meals:

Atropine Sulfate, Bactrim, Dalmane, Insulin, Mestinon, Valium

*Drugs that are best taken AFTER meals:

Artane, Cogentin, Clozaril, Deltasone, Elavil, Haldol, Lithium, MAOI, Nardil, Pyridium, Ritalin, Streptomycin, Thorazine, Tofranil

*Drugs that are best taken on an EMPTY STOMACH:

Ampicin, Chloromycetin, Erythrocin, Ferrous Sulfate, INH, Isordil, Penicillin, Rifadin

*Drugs that need to be taken in the MORNING:

Accutane, Adriamycin, Aminophylline, Cytoxan, Diabinase, Diamox, Epinephrine, Mannitol, Sudafed, Synthroid, Tamofen, Theodur

*Drugs that can be take W/O REGARD TO MEALS:

Ancef, AZT, Ca EDTA, Cardiazem, Cefoxitin Na, Cephulac, Codeine, Coumadin, Demerol, Dexasone, Gentamicin, Heparin, Methergin, Neomycin Sulfate, Nipride, Oncovin, Phenergan, Pitocin, Povan, Prostigmine, Robaxin, Rocephin, Sulfamylon, Symmetrel

I also remember one of the instructors mentioned to look up drugs that shouldn't be crushed, so here they are:

*Common drugs that SHOULD NOT be crushed:

Accutane (irritant), Azulfidine (enteric coated), Depakene (irritates the mouth), Ecotrin, Indocin, Mestinon Timespans, MS Contin, Nexium, Noctec, Pantoprazole, Ritalin, Wellbutrin

Unfortunately, there was no list of the drugs that should be taken at bedtime... Again, I hope this helps you and anyone else looking for this! :)

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