Vulnerable Population

Identification Vulnerability often is seen as a weakness or not able to defend yourself; however, when it comes to nursing there is a different way of looking at it. A vulnerable population can be a group of people that show factors of an increased chance of their health status becoming poor. This can be that they are lacking access to care and their chance of illness is higher than other patients (Stanhope and Lancaster, 2014). In other words, vulnerable populations are at risk for poor physical, psychological or social health (De Chesnay, 2012). One population in particular are adults living in poverty. Vulnerability can occur in any population leading to further health problems. Some include not being treated fairly or lacking access
In an article from the American Journal of Public Health, disparities in health care have been targeted for elimination by federal agencies and professional organizations. With the Affordable Care Act the government is working on reducing disparities in health and medicine by promoting access to equitable and more efficient health care. Yet after five years in the making there is still many issues. Some including the access to care as mentioned prior, access to medical homes and care organizations, lack of preventable medications and cultural competency on these disparities. The American Journal of Public Health also notes that in some states one in five people are living in poverty. (American Journal of Public Health,
With biological there are the subgroups of genetic predisposition, age, and race. If there is a constant cycle of poverty and if a patient has the same diseases that run in the family, the patient will typically have the same outcome as his or her family members. According to Stanhope (2014), The U.S. Census Bureau in 2001 found that there were more white families than minorities below the poverty level. There are less families of minority in the U.S. than there are white families, which causes a misrepresentation of the amount of people under the poverty level. “For example, 7.3% of white families are living in poverty, whereas 21.9% of African-Americans and 20.9% of Hispanics are doing so. Consequently, minorities are disproportionally represented on the lower tiers of the socioeconomic ladder.” (Stanhope, 2014, p.