| Course | NURS 6730 Public Health Nursing Leadership |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 5 |
| Paper type | Policy brief (memo format) |
| Length | About 720 words, 4 pages |
| Format | Memo, APA 7 citations |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for NURS 6730 Week 5
Memorandum
To: Chair, District Board of Health
From: Community health nursing supervisor, with the environmental health division
Date: Month Day, Year
Re: Request: adopt a board rule requiring a water test when a property served by a private well is sold
The Request
I ask the board to adopt a rule requiring that, whenever a property served by a private well is sold in the district, the well water be tested by a certified laboratory before closing and the result given to the buyer. The rule would use the board's existing rulemaking authority over sanitation, cost the district little to administer and give every buyer information that no one is currently required to provide.
The Problem
Private wells fall outside the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which regulates public water systems, defined as systems serving at least 15 connections or regularly serving at least 25 people (42 U.S.C. § 300f). A household well serving one home is not a public water system, so no agency tests it and no standard applies to it. The only person who tests a private well is its owner, and many never do.
Nitrate from the cropland and manure applications that surround much of the district is the concern our environmental health staff raise most often. High nitrate in drinking water is a recognized risk for infants, and research continues on other possible health effects (Ward et al., 2018). The district's voluntary testing records show which wells have been tested and what they showed, but they cannot show how many wells have never been tested, and the owners who volunteer are probably not typical. No local figure for contamination across the district's wells exists, and this brief does not invent one.
Why at Sale
A sale is the one moment when a well changes hands, a buyer is making a large decision and an inspection process already exists. A test at that point reaches every well over time without anyone knocking on doors. New Jersey has required testing of private wells during real estate transactions since 2002, and a study of that law found it significantly increased testing and led more households to identify and treat contaminated water (Flanagan et al., 2016). That study concerned arsenic in another state, so it does not predict results here, but it shows that a point-of-sale requirement changes testing behavior.
Authority
The district's enabling statute grants the board power to adopt rules governing sanitation, including water supplies serving dwellings. A testing requirement at sale falls within that power. The rule would not require any approval from the county commissions, although the health officer will brief each commission before the public hearing.
Objections and Answers
Cost to sellers. A standard test panel from a certified laboratory costs a modest amount relative to a home sale, and some lenders already ask for one. The rule could let buyer and seller agree who pays, as they do for other inspections.
Delay at closing. Laboratory results usually return within days. The rule would require that the test be done and the result delivered before closing, not that any problem be fixed first, so a sale would not wait on treatment. Realtors can schedule the test alongside the home inspection.
Government intrusion. The rule requires information, not action. It does not tell owners what to do with their wells, does not require treatment and does not give the district any right to enter property. It gives a buyer the same kind of information they already receive about a septic system or a roof. The district would receive a copy of the result only to track testing, and the board can decide whether that copy is required.
Fairness to rural owners. Owners on public water already receive regular testing through their utility. The rule gives buyers in rural areas a comparable baseline once, at the point of purchase.
What the Rule Would Not Do
The rule would not require treatment, would not set a standard a well must meet to be sold, would not apply to wells that are not changing hands, and would not require testing of wells used only for livestock or irrigation. It would not replace advice on interpreting results or choosing treatment, which the environmental health division and certified laboratories provide.
The Ask
Adopt a rule requiring a certified water test and delivery of the result to the buyer before the sale of any property served by a private well, with a public hearing at the next scheduled board meeting.
References
Flanagan, S. V., Spayd, S. E., Procopio, N. A., Chillrud, S. N., Braman, S., & Zheng, Y. (2016). Arsenic in private well water part 1 of 3: Impact of the New Jersey Private Well Testing Act on household testing and mitigation behavior. Science of the Total Environment, 562, 999-1009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.03.196
Safe Drinking Water Act, 42 U.S.C. § 300f (2018).
Ward, M. H., Jones, R. R., Brender, J. D., de Kok, T. M., Weyer, P. J., Nolan, B. T., Villanueva, C. M., & van Breda, S. G. (2018). Drinking water nitrate and human health: An updated review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(7), Article 1557. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15071557
The Walden NURS 6730 Week 5 instructions
Policy brief prompts in this week generally ask you to identify a public health problem, propose a policy solution and persuade a specific decision maker to act. Briefs are short, often two pages, and may be written as a memo. Choose a recipient who can actually take the action you request, and put the request in the opening lines. Describe the problem with evidence, but say plainly what the data cannot show. Explain why this policy and why at this point. Show that the recipient has the legal authority to act. Give the strongest objections their own space and answer each one. End by restating the request. Leave technical guidance, such as how to treat water, to the responsible professionals.
Inside the NURS 6730 Week 5 example
The header names the board chair and makes the request the subject line. A bolded opening states the vote asked for. The problem section cites the statute defining public water systems and Ward and colleagues' review of nitrate and health, and it declines to invent a local figure. A section on timing uses Flanagan and colleagues' study of the New Jersey Private Well Testing Act to show that testing at sale increases testing, while noting the study concerned arsenic in another state. The authority section places the rule within the board's sanitation power. Four objections follow, cost, delay, intrusion and fairness, each answered briefly. A limits section and a one-line ask close the memo.
NURS 6730 Week 5 rubric: what earns full marks
Policy briefs are graded first on the request: a named office holder, a single action and evidence that the action is within that office's power. Evidence earns credit for honesty as much as volume, so stating the limits of local data can score better than stretching it. Objection handling often carries the largest share, especially when a concern is conceded before it is answered. Audience fit is judged through length, plain language and a format the reader can use in a meeting. Legal and scholarly sources must be cited in APA even in memo form. Some rubrics reward a clear statement of what the policy would not do, which reassures a cautious board.
NURS 6730 Week 5 help from the desk
Briefs lose points when the request is buried on the second page, when it is addressed to someone who cannot act on it or when it asks for several things at once. Another loss is presenting evidence from another place as if it predicts local results. Some briefs skip opposing arguments, which leaves the recipient unprepared for the hearing. Others drift into technical instructions outside the writer's role. Name your recipient and action at the top, keep evidence honest, prove authority, answer objections and restate the ask. The desk can draft a brief on the policy and recipient your section assigns. Hold to the page limit, since a brief that runs long often goes unread.
Get a NURS 6730 Week 5 example written to your instructions
Tell the desk who holds the decision in your case, by title, and send that alongside the Week 5 brief prompt and your rubric. The request is written to that office's actual authority, and the likely objections are answered before the reader can raise them. A first sample comes free, returned within 24-48 hours.
More NURS 6730 papers and MSN samples
- NURS 6730 Week 1: Discussion post
- NURS 6730 Week 2: Agency structure analysis
- NURS 6730 Week 3: Budget analysis
- NURS 6730 Week 4: Workforce plan
- NURS 6730 Week 6: Coalition strategy memo
- NURS 6730 Week 7: Preparedness leadership plan
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- NURS 6730 Week 9: Communication plan
- NURS 6730 Week 10: Strategic plan
- NURS 6730 Week 11: Reflection
- NURS 6720 Week 5: Goals and objectives
- NURS 6710 Week 5: Windshield survey writeup
- NURS 6630 Week 5: Decision tree case
- DNRS 6501 Week 5: Discussion post
NURS 6730 Week 5 questions, answered
Why address the board chair rather than a legislator?
Because the week asks for an action the recipient controls, and in the composite district the board holds rulemaking power over sanitation. A legislator could pass a statewide requirement, but that is a different and slower ask. Your jurisdiction may place the authority elsewhere, with a county commission or a state agency. A custom brief is addressed to whichever office can actually act on it.
Does the brief say whether well water is safe to drink?
No. It describes a regulatory gap and a testing requirement, and it offers no guidance on interpreting results or treating water, which belong with environmental health professionals and the laboratory. The brief's subject is the rule and its politics. Samples written for your section hold that boundary, whatever policy topic your prompt assigns, and cites the responsible agency where technical detail is needed.
How long should a policy brief be?
Short enough that the decision maker reads all of it, which usually means two pages or fewer. The example holds to two, with the ask at the top and the objections given the most room. A word count or a required appendix of sources may appear in your prompt. The custom version meets that limit and keeps the request visible in the opening paragraph.
Where can I find a free NURS 6730 Week 5 sample paper?
The full policy brief on point-of-sale well testing, including the objections section and three references, are posted on this page free. A brief on the policy your prompt assigns is available on request.
What evidence does the NURS 6730 Week 5 brief use for testing at sale?
A study of New Jersey's Private Well Testing Act, which found that the law increased household testing and treatment, while the brief notes the study concerned arsenic in another state.