| Course | NU706 Ethics, Policy, and Advocacy in Population Health |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 10 |
| Paper type | Position paper |
| Length | About 1,140 words, 7 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NU706 Unit 10
No Patient Leaves on Insulin Without Insulin: A Unit 10 Position Paper on a Funded Discharge Supply and the Policy Behind It
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
NU706: Ethics, Policy, and Advocacy in Population Health
Unit 10 Position Paper
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The hospital, its figures and the patients are composite and illustrative; the studies, laws and frameworks cited are real.
The Position
Every patient who leaves 5 West or 6 West on insulin new to them should leave with at least 30 days of that insulin and the supplies to use it, in hand, with teaching on the device they will actually use. When insurance, a state program or a manufacturer's program can pay, it should. When none can in time, the hospital should pay. And because a hospital fund treats the symptom rather than the cause, the nurses who run the bundle should use the fund's records to support public policy that makes such a fund unnecessary.
Why This Position: The Case From the Course
The earlier units built this conclusion one piece at a time.
The bundle was designed to make teaching safe, and teaching does make a difference, but none of it matters for a patient who cannot buy the insulin. The Unit 3 policy analysis showed that state caps on out-of-pocket costs do not reach uninsured patients or those in self-funded employer plans, who together made up a substantial share of the unit's patients last year. Nationally, about one in six adults using insulin reported rationing it in the past year to save money (Gaffney et al., 2022).
The Unit 6 analysis followed a patient who left on a Friday evening with a prescription he could not fill and returned nine days later in crisis, and found that most nurses on both units met the same situation often enough to feel real moral distress about it. The Unit 9 analysis concluded that manufacturer assistance programs help many patients but leave predictable gaps: patients who do not qualify and patients who need insulin before a shipment can arrive.
A gap the hospital can predict is a gap the hospital is responsible for planning around.
Evidence That a Discharge Supply Works
The most direct evidence comes from programs that deliver medicines to the bedside before discharge. At an urban academic hospital, a predischarge delivery program was evaluated in two forms, one that only delivered medicines and one that also subsidized them for uninsured and underinsured patients (Stedge et al., 2023). The subsidized version had the lowest 30-day readmission rates in each comorbidity group, though the difference fell short of significance in the sickest group, and a cost analysis found that subsidizing medicines cost less per point of readmission reduction than delivery alone. The study was retrospective and not specific to insulin, but it supports the logic of the position: getting the medicine into the patient's hands, and removing the price at the moment of discharge, is what changes outcomes.
The stakes for insulin are particularly high. National surveillance estimated that insulin-related hypoglycemia and errors account for close to a hundred thousand emergency visits a year, with older patients at greatest risk (Geller et al., 2014). Rationing produces the opposite danger. A patient who leaves without insulin, or with too little, is at risk of severe hyperglycemia and ketoacidosis. In the composite hospital's records, 31 of last year's 214 patients started on insulin returned within 30 days for low or high glucose.
Cost to the Hospital
The fund would be modest. Of 214 patients last year, case management estimates that about 20 had no source that could pay for a first month before discharge, either because they were uninsured and did not qualify for a program, or because their program shipment would take too long. At a cash price of about $300 a month for a pen, or less for human insulin in vials, a fund for those patients would cost roughly $6,000 a year. A single readmission for hyperglycemia costs the hospital more than that.
Answering the Objections
"The hospital cannot pay for every patient's medicines." The position does not ask it to. It asks for a first month for patients with no other source, for one high-alert, life-sustaining medicine, in a group the hospital already tracks. The fund is the last payer, not the first.
"A fund lets insurers, manufacturers and the state off the hook." That is a real risk, and it is why the position includes an obligation to count and report. Each patient the fund covers is evidence that a public program is needed, and the Unit 7 testimony showed how such evidence can be used to support a state safety net modeled on Minnesota's insulin program (Minn. Stat. § 151.74). A hospital that records its gaps has stronger standing to ask for policy than one that hides them.
"Patients may come to expect free insulin." The supply is limited to 30 days and tied to a plan for the next month, whether a program enrollment, a lower-cost product or a referral to a clinic with a sliding scale. The 30-day contact in the bundle checks that the plan is working.
The Ethical Basis
Principlism supports the position on several grounds (Beauchamp & Childress, 2019). Beneficence requires that the hospital's teaching produce benefit, which it cannot do without the medicine. Nonmaleficence is engaged because discharging a patient on a high-alert drug they cannot obtain foreseeably exposes them to harm. Justice is engaged because, without a fund, whether a patient leaves safely depends on income and type of coverage rather than need. The ANA Code of Ethics adds the nurse's obligation to advocate for patients and to work to change the systems that harm them, which is why the second half of this position, the advocacy, carries equal weight with the first (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2015).
What Nurses Will Do
The DNP project team will present this position, with last year's data, to the hospital's nursing leadership and finance committee in the next budget cycle. If the fund is approved, nurses will screen every patient starting insulin for a payment route by the second hospital day, record each case the fund covers and report quarterly. Those reports will go to the state nurses association's policy committee as evidence for a state insulin safety net.
Conclusion
The bundle taught patients to use insulin well, but teaching without insulin is not care. The hospital should guarantee every patient starting insulin a first month in hand at discharge, paying when nothing else can, and should use the record of what it pays to argue for public policy that would make the guarantee nearly free. The position is affordable, supported by evidence and consistent with the ethical obligations the course has examined from the bedside to the state house.
References
American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. American Nurses Association.
Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2019). Principles of biomedical ethics (8th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Gaffney, A., Himmelstein, D. U., & Woolhandler, S. (2022). Prevalence and correlates of patient rationing of insulin in the United States: A national survey. Annals of Internal Medicine, 175(11), 1623-1626. https://doi.org/10.7326/M22-2477
Geller, A. I., Shehab, N., Lovegrove, M. C., Kegler, S. R., Weidenbach, K. N., Ryan, G. J., & Budnitz, D. S. (2014). National estimates of insulin-related hypoglycemia and errors leading to emergency department visits and hospitalizations. JAMA Internal Medicine, 174(5), 678-686. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.136
Minn. Stat. § 151.74 (2024).
Stedge, B., Xu, J., Kubes, J. N., Han, E., Russie, C., Woods, L., & O'Donnell, C. (2023). Meds to beds at hospital discharge improves medication adherence and readmission rates in select populations. Southern Medical Journal, 116(3), 247-254. https://doi.org/10.14423/SMJ.0000000000001532
NU706 Unit 10 instructions, in plain terms
The final unit of NU706 asks students to take a position on an ethics or policy question in population health and defend it. Prompts usually call for the position stated early, the reasoning and evidence that support it, the ethical basis, the strongest objections with responses and a plan for action. The position should be specific enough to adopt or reject, not a general hope. Instructors expect the paper to draw on earlier course work, since integration across units is often scored on its own. Sources should include current peer-reviewed evidence, an ethics framework and primary legal texts where laws are cited, all in APA 7. The paper is usually the longest of the term. A position paper is also expected to say who will act and when, so a closing section on next steps is a common requirement.
How the NU 706 Unit 10 example is put together
The position appears in the lead and again in the first section, in three sentences: a 30-day supply in hand, the hospital as last payer and advocacy built on the fund's records. A section on the case from the course links the Unit 3 policy gaps, the Unit 6 discharge and the Unit 9 program gaps, under a highlighted line about predictable gaps, with a margin note on integration. Evidence follows from Stedge's subsidized delivery program and Geller's emergency estimates, with the hospital's 31 returns among 214 patients. A cost section estimates about 20 patients and $6,000 a year. Three objections are answered in bold-headed paragraphs, the second conceding the substitution risk, flagged by a second note. Principlism and the ANA Code ground the ethics, and a closing section names the budget cycle and the state nurses association as next steps.
Where the points sit in the NU706 Unit 10 rubric
Position papers are graded first on whether the position is clear, specific and defended, so a thesis that hedges loses points from the start. Evidence is scored for relevance and accuracy, and graders check that cited findings match the sources. The objections criterion is often decisive: credit goes to papers that answer the strongest counterarguments and concede what is true in them. Ethical reasoning should apply a framework to the position rather than recite it. Integration of earlier units is weighed in the final paper of NU706, so references back to prior analyses earn marks. Feasibility, including a cost estimate and a plan for action, is part of the content grade. The rest comes from organization, scholarly writing and APA 7, including correct statute citations. A short, concrete next-steps section tends to raise papers that are otherwise strong.
NU706 Unit 10 help from the desk
Position papers most often lose marks when the position drifts into an analysis that never commits. A second frequent problem is answering weak objections while skipping the strong one, such as the risk that a hospital fund lets public payers off the hook. Some writers claim evidence proves more than it does, for example treating a retrospective meds-to-beds study as a trial. Missing cost estimates make a position look unaware of the organization's constraints. Papers also forget to integrate the course, writing the final paper as if earlier units did not exist. Start by writing the position in one sentence that someone could vote on, then list the three objections a finance committee would raise. A custom position paper can be built from your own earlier NU706 work and the decision your organization faces.
Get an NU706 Unit 10 example written to your instructions
Send your position, the population and the paper instructions with the rubric. A custom position paper states the position, supports it with evidence and ethics and answers the strongest objections. The first is free and comes back within 24-48h. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More NU706 papers and DNP samples
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- NU706 Unit 6: Moral Distress Analysis
- NU706 Unit 7: Advocacy Testimony, Insulin Bill
- NU706 Unit 8: Global Health Policy Analysis
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NU706 Unit 10 questions, answered
What makes a position paper different from an analysis?
A position paper argues for a specific action and defends it; an analysis may describe options without choosing.
Should a position paper address objections?
Yes. Answering the strongest objection is often what makes the position credible.
Can the final paper build on earlier units?
Usually, and it should. Bringing together earlier ethical and policy analyses shows integration.
Where can I find a free NU706 Unit 10 sample paper?
Scroll up for the full NU706 Unit 10 position paper, which argues that every patient starting insulin should leave with a 30-day supply in hand, with the hospital as last payer, and answers three objections.
How much would the fund in the NU706 Unit 10 sample cost?
The paper estimates about 20 patients a year with no other source for a first month, at roughly $300 each for a pen, or about $6,000 a year, less than the cost of a single readmission for hyperglycemia.