| Course | NU706 Ethics, Policy, and Advocacy in Population Health |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 8 |
| Paper type | Global health policy analysis |
| Length | About 1,090 words, 6 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 8
A Hundred Years On, Still Out of Reach: A Unit 8 Global Health Policy Analysis of Insulin Access in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
NU706: Ethics, Policy, and Advocacy in Population Health
Unit 8 Global Health Policy Analysis
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The writer's unit is composite; the reports, targets and studies cited are real.
From One Unit to the World
The earlier units of this course followed patients on two medical-surgical units in Dubuque who struggled to afford insulin despite living in a high-income country with three large manufacturers selling it. The same drug faces a different and in some ways harder set of barriers elsewhere. Where an American patient meets a price at the pharmacy counter, a patient in a district hospital in parts of sub-Saharan Africa may find no insulin at all, no refrigerator to keep it and no meter to guide the dose.
The Barriers
Beran et al. (2016) reviewed the constraints on insulin access worldwide and grouped them in ways a policy analysis can use. The first is price. Manufacturers' selling prices are only the start; import duties, taxes, wholesale and retail markups and supply chain costs can multiply the price a patient finally pays. Unlike medicines for HIV, insulin has not seen a wave of low-cost generic competition, and biosimilar products had not changed the overall market at the time of the review.
The second is availability. Countries often underestimate how much insulin they need, distribution within countries is uneven, and supplies are concentrated in cities. The third is the health system around the drug. Insulin needs diagnosis, trained staff, glucose testing, cold storage in the supply chain and follow-up, and where any of these is missing, a vial on the shelf does little good.
A medicine is not accessible because it exists; it is accessible when the whole system around it works.
The Scale of the Need
Need is rising. A microsimulation of type 2 diabetes across 221 countries projected that the number of people with the disease would grow from about 406 million in 2018 to about 511 million in 2030 (Basu et al., 2019). Under current access, about 7 in every 100 people with type 2 diabetes would use insulin in 2030; if insulin were widely accessible and prescribed to a target A1C of 7 percent, the share would roughly double, to about 16 in 100. The authors also found that more disability-adjusted life-years could be averted if targets were relaxed for people 75 and older, a reminder that policy is about appropriate use, not only more use.
For people with type 1 diabetes, the stakes are absolute. Without insulin they die, and in places with poor access, children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes may survive only a short time. The projection is therefore not only a forecast of demand for manufacturers. It is a measure of how far current supply, prices and health systems fall short of what treatment guidelines already recommend, and it gives policy makers a number to plan procurement against.
International Responses
The World Health Organization's 2021 report on insulin access, marking a century since its discovery, set out the global picture and the policy options in detail (World Health Organization [WHO], 2021). Three responses stand out.
The first is prequalification. In 2019, WHO launched a pilot to prequalify human insulin, a process that assesses quality so that United Nations agencies and national buyers can purchase from more manufacturers with confidence. The aim is to widen competition among suppliers whose products meet a common standard and so lower prices, especially for human insulin, which remains appropriate for many patients with type 2 diabetes.
The second is the Global Diabetes Compact, launched in 2021, and the global coverage targets for diabetes that member states endorsed in 2022. Among the targets for 2030 is that all people with type 1 diabetes have access to affordable insulin and blood glucose self-monitoring (WHO, 2021). Targets do not supply insulin, but they give governments, donors and advocates a measure against which to hold each other accountable.
The third is attention to price and supply chain policy within countries: removing duties and taxes on insulin, regulating markups, pooled procurement across regions and including insulin and its supplies in national essential medicines lists and insurance schemes. These address the cost multipliers Beran et al. (2016) identified.
Assessment of the Responses
Each response addresses part of the problem. Prequalification and pooled procurement address price and supply, but they work best for human insulin, and patients and clinicians in many countries increasingly expect analog insulins. Coverage targets create accountability but depend on national follow-through and on funding that has historically gone to communicable disease. Removing taxes and regulating markups can lower prices quickly, yet they do nothing for a clinic without a refrigerator or a nurse trained to start insulin.
The gap the responses share is the health system. Insulin access depends on people who can diagnose diabetes, teach patients, adjust doses and follow up, and in most low-resource settings those people are nurses. Policy that buys cheaper insulin without training and supporting nurses repeats the mistake of thinking a medicine on a shelf is access.
What a Nurse in Iowa Can Do
A nurse educator in Dubuque cannot change procurement in Malawi. But realistic channels exist. Professional organizations such as the International Council of Nurses and national nursing associations comment on WHO policy and can carry nurses' experience into it. Nurses can support advocacy organizations led by people with diabetes. Nurse researchers and educators can partner with colleagues in low-resource settings on training in insulin initiation and teaching, the part of access policy that is most often missing. And nurses in the United States can make the connection visible: the same lack of price transparency and the same concentration of manufacturers shape access in both places.
On my own unit, the most direct link is educational. The teaching materials we built for the bundle, written in plain language and tested with patients, are the kind of resource that colleagues elsewhere have asked for, and sharing them openly costs nothing.
Conclusion
Insulin access in low- and middle-income countries fails because of price multipliers, uneven supply and weak systems around the drug. Prequalification, coverage targets and national price policies each address part of that failure, and none addresses the shortage of trained people who make insulin safe to use. A nurse's contribution is most realistic through professional bodies, partnerships in training and advocacy that connects access problems at home with those abroad.
References
Basu, S., Yudkin, J. S., Kehlenbrink, S., Davies, J. I., Wild, S. H., Lipska, K. J., Sussman, J. B., & Beran, D. (2019). Estimation of global insulin use for type 2 diabetes, 2018-30: A microsimulation analysis. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 7(1), 25-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(18)30303-6
Beran, D., Ewen, M., & Laing, R. (2016). Constraints and challenges in access to insulin: A global perspective. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 4(3), 275-285. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(15)00521-5
World Health Organization. (2021). Keeping the 100-year-old promise: Making insulin access universal. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240039100
The Purdue Global NU706 Unit 8 instructions
Unit 8 widens the course to global policy, usually asking students to choose a health problem that crosses borders and analyze the international response. Prompts commonly expect the problem's scale, the barriers that sustain it, the main policies or programs aimed at it, an assessment of how well each works and the role nurses can play. Sources should include at least one major review and the primary documents of the organizations involved, such as WHO reports or resolutions. Instructors look for analysis that ties each response to a specific barrier rather than listing initiatives. Most sections set several pages in APA 7. Connecting the global problem to the student's own population, as this course does across units, is often encouraged, but the paper's center must stay on the international policy and its effects in the countries most affected.
How this NU706 Unit 8 example is built
A short bridge connects the Dubuque patients of earlier units to the district hospital without insulin on its shelves. The barriers section follows Beran and colleagues, grouping price, availability and health system constraints, with a highlighted sentence that a medicine is accessible only when the system around it works and a margin note on why the grouping matters. Basu's projections set out the scale, and a paragraph on type 1 diabetes states the stakes. Three responses are described from the WHO report: the 2019 prequalification pilot, the 2021 compact and its targets, and national tax, markup and procurement policies, each tied to a barrier in a second note. An assessment section finds that all three leave the shortage of trained staff unaddressed. The final section names four realistic channels for a nurse, then a conclusion restates the gap.
Where the points sit in the NU706 Unit 8 rubric
Most of the credit in a global policy paper goes to the analysis of responses, judged on whether each is linked to a barrier and assessed for what it can and cannot do. Accuracy about international programs is scored closely, so dates, names and targets should come from the organizations' own documents. Description of the problem earns points when it uses current data with sources and avoids generalities about poor countries. The nursing role criterion rewards realistic channels over sweeping claims. Graders often check whether the writer distinguishes human from analog insulin or similar details that shape policy. The remaining points cover organization, use of at least one major review and APA 7 format. Papers that end by naming a gap every current response shares usually stand out from those that summarize.
NU706 Unit 8 help: mistakes that cost points
Global policy papers commonly lose marks by listing every initiative without assessing any of them. Another frequent weakness is describing the problem only through price, when availability and health systems are equally important. Some writers cite secondhand summaries of WHO targets that turn out to be wrong in their details. Claims that nurses in the United States can directly change procurement abroad overreach and cost credit under the nursing role criterion. Papers also slip when they slide back into domestic policy for most of their length. Begin by writing the three barriers in one line each, then match each response to the barrier it addresses and note what it leaves untouched. A custom global analysis can be written on the cross-border problem your course section assigns, with sources current to the term.
Get an NU706 Unit 8 example written to your instructions
Send the global issue, the policies involved and the analysis instructions with the rubric. A custom analysis explains the barriers, the international responses and what nurses can do. The first is free, delivered 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.
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NU706 Unit 8 questions, answered
Why is insulin access a global policy issue?
A century after its discovery, insulin remains unaffordable or unavailable for many people in low- and middle-income countries because of price, supply chains, few manufacturers and weak health systems.
What international responses exist?
The World Health Organization has added insulin to its prequalification program and launched a global diabetes compact, among other efforts. An analysis should explain what each does.
Can nurses influence global policy?
Through professional organizations, research, education and advocacy, nurses contribute to global policy. A paper should name realistic channels.
Where can I find a free NU706 Unit 8 sample paper?
The complete NU706 Unit 8 global health policy analysis is on this page. It examines insulin access in low- and middle-income countries, assesses three international responses and names realistic roles for nurses.
What gap does the NU706 Unit 8 sample find in current insulin access policies?
The shortage of trained health workers. Prequalification, coverage targets and price policies address cost and supply, but none fully addresses the nurses and other staff who diagnose, teach and follow up patients using insulin.