NURS FPX 4055 Assessment 2 Community Resources

Community Resources

Many global organizations work to improve public health, safety, and quality of life. Many of these organizations provide aid to underserved populations during and after health crises. The World Health Organization (WHO) is one of the more notable organizations that has worked in these areas. The WHO is an international public health organization that works to strengthen the international community’s capacity to improve health, reduce the burden of disease, and promote equity in health throughout the globe (World Health Organization, 2025). This assessment examines the WHO’s role in improving the public health and safety of the population and ensuring the equity of high-standard health services. This assessment will also examine the funding sources, the influence of health policies, and the role of nursing in WHO services. Analyzing the work that is performed by the WHO supports the assertion that international health organizations are the most instrumental in the provision of health services and in the improvement of population health.

Organization’s Mission and Vision Contribute to Public Health and Safety Improvements

The mission of the WHO rests on three pillars, namely the promotion of health, the safety of the nation, and the concern for vulnerable populations. Their vision, on the other hand, is the provision of the highest possible health opportunity for all people, everywhere. There are many ways the WHO complements public health, among them the addressing of the threats posed by communicable diseases, the enhancement of the resilience and the responsiveness of health systems, and the coordination of responses to global emergencies. In the provision of safer public conditions, the WHO develops internationally accepted health care guidelines, assists in responding to outbreaks and emergencies, and works on the long-term rebuilding of health systems in countries after emergencies.

The actions of the World Health Organization during the COVID-19 pandemic reflect the organization’s mission statement and goal to unify the global community to support every individual country through the acquisition of global surveillance systems and the offering of resources, such as supplemental safe vaccines via the COVAX initiative and public health information and guidance related to the mitigation of the pandemic. COVAX is a project of the WHO designed to address the global vaccination gap by ensuring that low- and middle-income countries receive COVID-19 vaccinations. COVAX was designed to meet the WHO goal to reduce vaccination inequity and disparity within the global community (World Health Organization, 2024). The greater vaccination coverage that resulted from the WHO’s COVAX initiative decreased the risk of COVID-19’s spread and improved the global community’s preparedness to respond to future pandemics and the safety of the world as a whole. COVAX illustrated the WHO’s commitment to health equity as a central focus during a time of crisis within the pandemic response.

Organization’s Ability to Promote Equal Opportunity and Improve Quality of Life

The primary goal of the WHO is to create the ability to offer equal opportunities through the addressing of systematic health inequities derived from sociocultural, physical, and economic inequities. Social barriers can be among the various factors that cause discrimination and stigma and can contribute to the denial of timely and appropriate health care to marginalized and/or underserved health populations. As a member of the international community, the WHO makes an effort to address these barriers to healthcare through the attainment of universal health coverage (UHC), which is defined as equitable access to necessary health services for all without financial suffering (Collins et al., 2025). Removing barriers to healthcare access for low-income and high-income populations will assist the WHO in accomplishing its goal of equitable healthcare and the improvement of health outcomes for all populations. The WHO is a social justice organization that follows the principle of equitable access to health care by creating a diverse workforce of health professionals (WHO, 2024). It offers support for the recruitment and training of local health workers in low- and middle-income countries to build and ensure national health systems’ sustainability. The WHO also focuses on actively inclusive hiring and workforce formation to strengthen health systems and empower communities by reducing inequities.

How culturally attuned health care systems are directly affects access to health care and community health. Access delays to health care are seen in many communities due to cultural beliefs, language issues, and distrust of formal health care systems (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024). The WHO helps regions develop health care systems that integrate culturally attuned services with evidence-based practice. Collaborating with community and governmental stakeholders, the WHO aims to develop culturally attuned health care services to increase community engagement and system utilization, establish trusting relationships, and improve health outcomes.

The greatest cause of the imbalance in health across countries is the widening gap between the rich and the poor within countries. Those in less privileged environments are more disadvantaged in non-economic means in accessing health care. They are more disadvantaged in accessing resources to purchase drugs and in accessing preventive and primary health care services (O’Donnell, 2024). The WHO includes the partnership with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, among other partnerships and funding initiatives, to meet the health needs of these disadvantaged populations. The available evidence shows that in the majority of low and middle-income countries (LMICs), up to 50 % of the total health workforce are nurses and midwives. This further justifies investment in the practice of equitable recruitment and training of nurses and midwives to meet the health needs of these populations (WHO, 2022). Countries that are investing in these services are experiencing positive health outcomes in the population, particularly in the previously underserved areas.

Remote communities face challenges in healthcare access due to inequities in available local healthcare services. These communities also face challenges in adequate healthcare due to limited local providers and limited hospital capacity. It shows that they cannot reach the timely medical services needed. The WHO is committed to addressing health inequities worldwide by improving the health systems that serve the majority of the world’s population. One of their efforts includes the creation of new digital health technologies to achieve better health outcomes and more efficient delivery of primary health services, such as mobile health technologies. This further includes advanced satellite technology to reach underserved populations and provide the needed health services necessary to attain better health at the greatest cost efficiency (Kaboli et al., 2026). Ultimately, the WHO will address inequities by creating and removing structural barriers to access diverse health services as a means to provide equity in access to health services. These types of access and equity initiatives are embedded in health service workforce interventions that aim to improve the quality of life through reduced health inequalities and the creation of new jobs in the community. This results in people being healthier and better off overall.

Impact of Funding Sources, Policy, and Legislation on Service Delivery

WHO primarily has two ways to generate financial resources. One way is through an allocation that is assigned to each of the 193 member states, and the other is through flexible models of financial contributions from many assignees, which include foundations, the private sector, some government sectors, etc. The combination of these ways provides diverse funding mechanisms to the WHO, which supports the WHO in providing high-quality health services to all countries of the world (World Health Organization, n.d.). Although WHO benefits from various donors, challenges caused by diverse funding mechanisms are inevitable. One of the challenges is that earmarked donor funds impose restrictions on the WHO’s ability to prioritize the use of resources to address the most urgent global health needs. The funding model of the WHO is vital to the provision of health services and has an important bearing on the future of global health. It is noted in the literature that a main component of their funding model is the strong reliance on earmarked, voluntary funding (M’ikanatha & Welliver, 2021). Approximately 80% of WHO funding is voluntary donation, which is largely donor-prioritized funding and therefore largely reallocated to other purposes, which are not prioritized by global health. A significant portion of these voluntary funds is donor-prioritized (Iwunna et al., 2023). This donor funding model and voluntary prioritized funding constrain the WHO’s ability and response to health emergencies, and have significant consequences on the WHO’s ability to provide funding to strengthen health systems and primary health care.

This can result in the loss of funding for important social programs in disadvantaged communities, program scaling, and/or the inability to either fully develop or implement programs. One of the proposed changes to funding distribution acknowledges that funding can influence the intended change to government policy, particularly in relation to the provision of vaccines. If there is less funding for vaccination services, then fewer people will be vaccinated, leaving them at risk of becoming infected. They, in turn, will be unable to pay to get vaccinated and, ultimately, control the spread of the disease. The opposite is true. Increased funding for vaccination services will not only increase the number of people vaccinated, but will also increase the provision of services to prevent the spread of diseases, create the preparedness to respond to future emergencies, and help to build and strengthen Health Services. (Wong et al., 2025). These changes can be seen at the individual, family, and community level, particularly in countries whose health care services are dependent on international funding and assistance.

Funding choices, policies a country adopts, and actions taken by governments have far-reaching effects on all the world’s communities. International laws, like the International Health Regulations (IHR), are crucial for the WHO to take action regarding the impact of the world’s outbreaks on people. According to the global health assessment data, countries that have a higher level of compliance with the International Health Regulations have a much quicker response and a shorter time for detection of outbreaks (Saxenian et al., 2022). However, the lack of funding and weak policy implementation in low-resource countries obstruct the efforts to get countries to completely adopt national policies and to attain an acceptable level of effective performance of the WHO-led response to emergencies. Reduced funding for the provision of immunization services means that fewer persons are immunized. The provision of services to protect persons from outbreaks of vaccine-preventable communicable diseases is the responsibility of the countries of the world. These countries should have the financial resources to provide these services. Increased funding to the global health initiatives means that persons are provided with services to prevent the occurrence of diseases, and the communicable diseases and outbreaks of preventable diseases are protected by the health services. Furthermore, funding is provided to health systems and services to enhance and strengthen preparedness. (Saxenian et al., 2022). These changes may be experienced by community members and families, especially in the areas where health systems are financially reliant on donor funding and on the policies of the governments. These barriers of funding and policies restrict services in health programs because of their limited size and scope. This can specifically divert focus from pertinent local health issues to donor concerns and can subsequently negatively impact the outreach and quality of health services provided to people in need.

Impact on Local Community Health and Safety Needs and Nurse Involvement

The WHO, despite its global outreach, greatly influences local health outcomes through national health systems and the execution of country-specific health policies. First, the WHO is positioned to develop strategies for the prevention of disease and the strengthening of maternal and child health, and the development of frameworks for preparedness for health emergencies. Second, through the strengthening of national cold-chain systems, the WHO supports national vaccination efforts and, consequently, makes significant strides in preventing vaccine-preventable diseases. Lastly, the WHO-led vaccination programs have decreased measles deaths by 88% between 2000 and 2021, illustrating the impact that health policy can have on health outcomes at the community level (WHO, 2025). Furthermore, the campaigns led by the WHO provide the infrastructure for vaccination for 80% of children worldwide, making them an essential prevention pillar. Expansion of early and preventive health services is a direct result of the WHO’s support of the community-based health system. This support aids in the reduction of preventable health care utilizations and improves the diagnostic services for community-based health systems (Alderwick et al., 2021). Moreover, the community-based health services supported by the WHO not only fulfill the existing health gaps but also strengthen the national capacity to respond to health emergencies.

Nurses are the first health care professionals that patients meet when they transition from community-based health services to an acute care hospital. Because of this, nurses are in a position to aid in the advancement of the WHO’s Health Programme. Furthermore, because nurses deliver health care at the frontline, they are in a prime position to identify health care risks early, educate the community on health care, and provide health services to prevent illness in the community that they serve. It has been shown that health care interventions that are community-based and nurse-led provide a positive impact on population health.

A report from the WHO states that enhancing the skills of existing staff would meet 80 percent of the basic health care needs throughout the world (WHO, 2025). This is especially the case for those communities where health care is inaccessible. Research shows that when nurses participate in health care education, they are motivated to participate in the vaccination programs that help improve the detection of the early signs of illness and thereby reduce the number of hospital admissions that are preventable (Flaubert et al., 2021). As part of an immunization program, nurses participate in a health care movement that places them at the center of the WHO’s global health initiatives to identify and notify the threats of communicable disease that help establish the framework for an international early warning system for communicable diseases (Flaubert, 2021). The WHO’s health care policies give nurses the inspiration and framework for advocating for health equity throughout the world. The participative role of nurses in international health care needs the formulation of international health policies, the participative role of nurses in health care training programs, and the active role of nurses in international health care advocacy. Nurses, as the largest global movement of health care providers and advocates of the WHO, create an energized global health care advocacy system at the community level. They operationalize WHO recommendations through the administration of vaccines, the promotion of health education, and the reporting and consideration of surveillance data. They also facilitate the transformation of global health initiatives into meaningful improvements in the health and safety of the local community.

Conclusion

The WHO helps reduce the prevalence of disease through prevention, response, and provides support to countries to create safe environments for all people. Although the WHO struggles with funding, policy, etc., they are able to create workarounds for common issues. Consequently, the partnered efforts with nursing professionals help to reduce health inequities and aid individuals around the globe to live healthier lives. This also allows nurses to implement WHO programs in their communities and provide greater support to the health of their communities. Collaboration of the nursing community with the work of the World Health Organization continues to strengthen global health and create a more just and equitable world.