GCU Vulnerable Populations Discussion – Description
Compare vulnerable populations. Describe an example of one of these groups in the United States or from another country. Explain why the population is designated as “vulnerable.” Include the number of individuals belonging to this group and the specific challenges or issues involved. Discuss why these populations are unable to advocate for themselves, the ethical issues that must be considered when working with these groups, and how nursing advocacy would be beneficial.
Example 1 Jarrett
Vulnerable populations are groups of people who cannot effectively advocate for their care due to reasons such as cognitive impairment, youth, or imprisonment, (Falkner, 2018). For cognitively impaired persons, the barrier to self-advocacy can be the inability to communicate verbally or the inability to process the information given to them regarding health outcomes. For children the barrier to self-advocacy is due to the point of human growth and development the person is at, wherein difficult decisions regarding matters of health cannot yet be made due to the immaturity of the patient. Incarcerated patients will not have the same ease of access to healthcare that someone in the general population has, and this can create a barrier to primary prevention strategies as well as treatment. Ethical dilemmas exist when working with vulnerable populations and as advocates, it is the nurse’s responsibility to keep the patient’s best interest in mind during care.
Many times the vulnerability of these patients is enhanced by other social determinants of health such as racial disparities, low socioeconomic status and geopolitical location, (AJMC, 2020). Health inequities like these only heighten the need for public nursing advocacy. It would be unethical for a nurse to treat someone because of their lack of insurance or a disability, and so it follows that it would be unethical for the public health nurse to avoid advocating for a vulnerable population for similar reasons. For many vulnerable persons the nurse advocate acts as a lifeline to gaining needed services, education and treatment.
Reference:
Falkner, A. (2018). Community as Client. In Community & Public Health: The future of health care. Grand Canyon University (Ed). Retrieved from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs427vn/community-and-public-health-the-future-of-health-care/v1.1/#/chapter/3
?Vulnerable Populations: Who Are They? (2020, August 5). AJMC. https://www.ajmc.com/view/nov06-2390ps348-s352
Example 2 mable
Vulnerable populations are groups of people who require special attention to well-being and safety, including persons who cannot advocate for their own needs such as children, prisoners, and cognitively, emotionally, and physically impaired (Green, 2018). In the United States, racial and ethnic minorities, the poor, and those with chronic health conditions are usually among the vulnerable population groups. The immigrant population, particularly undocumented immigrants, has consistently been affected negatively by social determinants of health (SDOH) such as poverty, food and housing insecurity, lack of educational attainment, and challenges with health care access (Chang, 2019). Other challenges are stigmatization, marginalization, difficulties with acculturation, and fear of deportation. More recently, increasingly restrictive policies, political rhetoric, and xenophobic stances have made immigrant families less able to access health care and less comfortable in attempting to do so (Russel, E., et.al., 2020). This places them in a socially disadvantaged position and increases their susceptibility to factors that increase (SDOH). In 2019, 44.9 million immigrants comprised 14 percent of total U. S. population (American Immigration Council, 2021). This number has increased to nearly 48 million in September 2022.
These immigrants are unable to advocate for themselves as they will need time to learn the culture. Many do not speak nor understand English, do not have insurance coverage, and these create barriers making access to health care challenging. They use emergency room departments as their port of access to health care. The emergency room health care provider, and the public health professionals should be their advocates by finding barriers impeding their access to health care. They should identify such individuals, the barriers facing them, and direct them to appropriate agencies for food, shelter, clothing, and medical care as needed. They should also access information about their accessibility to healthcare like transportation, language, and other barriers, then advocate for policy changes at institutional, community and national levels. Cultural competence and privacy should be maintained by their health care providers.
Reference
American Immigration Council, (2021). Immigrants in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigrants-in-the-united-states
Chang, C. (2019). Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities Among Immigrants and their Children. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30595524/
Green, S. (2018). Community as Client. In Community & Public Health: The future of health care. Grand Canyon University (Ed). Retrieved from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs427vn/community-and-public-health-the-future-of-health-care/v1.1/#/chapter/3
Russell, E. A., et.al., (2020). Children in Immigrant Families: Advocacy Within and Beyond the Pediatric Emergency Department. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpem.2020.100779
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