NURS 6224 Week 6 Policy and Procedure Review Example

Course	NURS 6224 Quality Assurance and Regulatory Compliance
Week	Week 6
Paper type	Policy and procedure review
Length	About 530 words, 4 pages
Format	APA 7 student paper
School	Walden University
Program	Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)
Updated	October 2026

Free sample paper for NURS 6224 Week 6

Policy and Procedure Review: Reprocessing Endocavity Ultrasound Probes

Student Name

College of Nursing, Walden University

NURS 6224: Quality Assurance and Regulatory Compliance

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

What this page is doingEach policy clause is set beside the requirement it cites and marked matched, silent or conflicting.

Policy and Procedure Review: Reprocessing Endocavity Ultrasound Probes

The Policy Under Review

Policy: Reprocessing of Endocavity Ultrasound Probes, a composite hospital's infection prevention policy. Owner: Infection Prevention Department. Last approved: four years ago; the policy's own review cycle is two years. Sources cited in the policy: the probe manufacturer's instructions for use, CDC guidance on disinfection and sterilization in healthcare facilities, and the Spaulding classification.

Why the Category Matters

The Spaulding classification sorts patient-care items by the tissue they contact. Critical items, which enter sterile tissue, must be sterilized; semicritical items, which contact mucous membranes or nonintact skin, require at least high-level disinfection; and noncritical items, which touch only intact skin, need low-level disinfection (Rutala & Weber, 2016). An endocavity probe used for transvaginal or transrectal imaging contacts mucous membranes and is therefore semicritical, even when covered with a probe cover, because covers can fail. The stakes are real: in a French radiology center that used only low-level disinfection wipes between examinations, human papillomavirus DNA was found on 13% of samples taken from disinfected transvaginal probes, and other organisms were also detected (M'Zali et al., 2014). The CDC guideline the policy cites applies the same classification and states that probe covers do not remove the need for high-level disinfection of semicritical probes (Rutala et al., 2019).

Crosswalk

Table 1

Policy Clauses Against Cited Requirements

Policy clause	Requirement it answers	Status
"Probes are cleaned and disinfected according to the manufacturer's instructions."	Manufacturer's instructions name specific cleaning agents, high-level disinfectants and contact times	Silent: the policy names no agent or contact time, so staff cannot follow it without the separate instructions, which are not attached
"A probe cover is used for every examination."	CDC guidance: covers do not replace high-level disinfection	Matched, but incomplete without the next step stated
"Probes are wiped with a disinfectant wipe between patients."	Semicritical items require high-level disinfection (Spaulding; CDC)	Conflicting: a wipe of unspecified level may be only low-level disinfection
No clause on storage	Storage in a manner that prevents recontamination	Silent
No clause on traceability	Ability to link each probe to each patient and each reprocessing cycle	Silent
No clause on competency	Staff trained and validated on the reprocessing method	Silent
"Review every two years."	Internal policy governance	Conflicting in practice: review overdue by two years

What this page is doingThe crosswalk exposes the most serious finding, a clause that could allow low-level disinfection of a semicritical device.

Recommended Revisions

Replace the wipe clause with: "After each use, remove the probe cover, clean the probe with the enzymatic or detergent cleaner named in the manufacturer's instructions, then perform high-level disinfection using [named FDA-cleared high-level disinfectant] for the contact time specified by its label, followed by rinsing and drying as the instructions require."

Add storage: "Store reprocessed probes in a covered, dedicated cabinet that prevents contact with used items."

Add traceability: "Record the probe identifier, patient, date, time, disinfection method and staff member for each reprocessing cycle in the reprocessing log."

Add competency: "Staff who reprocess probes complete initial and annual competency validation by direct observation."

Approval Route

The revised policy will go to the infection prevention committee for review, then to the medical imaging and women's health leaders for operational review, and finally to the policy committee for approval, with a two-year review date recorded on the approved version.

References

M'Zali, F., Bounizra, C., Leroy, S., Mekki, Y., Quentin-Noury, C., & Kann, M. (2014). Persistence of microbial contamination on transvaginal ultrasound probes despite low-level disinfection procedure. PLoS ONE, 9(4), Article e93368. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093368

Rutala, W. A., & Weber, D. J. (2016). Disinfection and sterilization in health care facilities: An overview and current issues. Infectious Disease Clinics of North America, 30(3), 609-637. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idc.2016.04.002

Rutala, W. A., Weber, D. J., & Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee. (2019). Guideline for disinfection and sterilization in healthcare facilities, 2008 (Update: May 2019). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/infection-control/hcp/disinfection-sterilization/index.html

Reading the NURS 6224 Week 6 instructions

Week 6 of NURS 6224 typically asks for a review of a policy or procedure. You describe the policy, test it against its cited and current sources, identify gaps, recommend revisions and describe the approval route. Faculty score whether the review tests the policy against sources, not against the reviewer's opinion. Cite guidelines and research in APA 7. The Spaulding classification sorts devices by infection risk into critical, semicritical and noncritical. A policy that only says to follow the manufacturer's instructions leaves staff without the steps they need. Reviewing your own organization's policy is acceptable if it is de-identified. A crosswalk table makes the comparison easy to check.

How this NURS 6224 Week 6 example is built

The review opens by identifying the policy, its owner, its last approval date and the sources it cites: the manufacturer's instructions for use, CDC guidance on disinfection and sterilization, and the Spaulding classification underlying both. A crosswalk table forms the body. Each row pairs a policy clause with the requirement it answers and marks the relationship as matched, silent or conflicting. Findings in the composite policy include no named disinfectant or contact time, no instruction for storage between uses, no step recording which probe was used on which patient, and a review date long past. The narrative explains why a probe touching mucous membranes falls in Spaulding's semicritical category and therefore calls for high-level disinfection. Recommended revisions are drafted as replacement language, and the approval route the revised policy would follow is named last.

NURS 6224 Week 6 rubric: what earns full marks

Reviews in this week are scored on whether they test the policy against its sources or only against the reviewer's sense of good practice. A review concluding that the policy could be clearer, without showing which requirement it fails to address, gives the criteria nothing to credit on analysis. The crosswalk is how the sample shows its work. Accuracy about sources is weighted: the manufacturer's instructions, CDC guidance and the Spaulding categories each carry a different kind of authority, and a paper blurring them invites correction. Findings of silence tend to earn more than findings about style, since silence is what gets cited. Recommendations lift the grade when drafted as usable language. Omitting the policy's version and approval date is a small error that signals carelessness out of proportion to its size.

Common NURS 6224 Week 6 mistakes, and how to avoid them

Policy reviews lose the most when they judge a policy by feel. Test each step against a source. Another common gap is ignoring the review date. Note when the policy is overdue. Writers also recommend changes with no approval route. Name the committee. Avoid treating probe covers as a substitute for disinfection. Cite the guideline. Use a crosswalk table. A revised step written in full, such as the exact high-level disinfection method and contact time, shows the change rather than describing it. Close with who signs the revised policy.

Get a NURS 6224 Week 6 example written to your instructions

Attach the policy you are reviewing with identifying details removed, or ask for a composite one, together with the Week 6 prompt and rubric. The crosswalk review is returned in 24-48h, the first free, with proposed replacement language for every silent or conflicting clause it turns up and each source cited in its current version.

More NURS 6224 papers and MSN samples

NURS 6224 Week 6 questions, answered

What is the Spaulding classification?

A long-standing scheme sorting patient care items by the tissue they contact: critical items entering sterile tissue need sterilization, semicritical items touching mucous membranes or nonintact skin need at least high-level disinfection, and noncritical items touching intact skin need low-level disinfection. The sample uses it to show why an endocavity probe needs high-level disinfection, which then determines what the policy should specify.

Why does a policy saying to follow the manufacturer's instructions fall short?

Because it hands the substance to another document without saying which one or what it requires. A new staff member reading the policy cannot learn the disinfectant, the contact time or the storage method, and a reviewer cannot tell whether the organization knows them either. The sample treats deference without detail as silence and recommends naming the product, the version of the instructions and the steps.

Can I review my own organization's policy?

Many prompts invite it, with identifying details removed and with your organization's permission where its policies are not public. The sample works from a composite policy written to contain typical gaps. Whatever the source, what the criteria assess is the method: identifying the version, pairing clauses with requirements and labeling each relationship. A redacted real policy and a composite one support that method equally well.

Where can I find a free NURS 6224 Week 6 sample paper?

The endocavity probe reprocessing review is printed here with the policy, the Spaulding reasoning, the crosswalk, revisions and the approval route.

How overdue is the policy in NURS 6224 Week 6?

It was last approved four years ago against its own two-year review cycle, so it is two years past due.