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Vulnerable Population Essay

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Submitted By Daisey73
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Vulnerable Population Essay
Carly Rauch
Wheeling Jesuit University
MSN
525

April 04, 2013

Vulnerable Population Essay A vulnerable population is the state of a population or individual being vulnerable to a specific event or disease. A vulnerable population is a group of individuals who are in some way disadvantaged particularly having limited resources to healthcare. Vulnerable populations lack equity socially, demographically, geographically, and economically (Shi & Singh, 2013). These populations groups include ethnic and racial minorities, individuals who reside in rural areas, uninsured women and children, the mentally ill individuals, the disabled and chronically ill individuals, those affected by HIV, and the homeless. Vulnerability is determined by a merging of enabling, predisposing, and characteristic needs at both the contextual and ecological levels. These three characteristics of vulnerability not only determine one’s accessibility to health care, but also influences ultimately an individuals’ risk of developing an illness or even recovering from their illness if already sick (Shi & Singh, 2013). Belief systems, demographic characteristics, and social structures are attributes that predispose individuals to vulnerability. Vulnerability statue is greatly influenced by these attributes due to their association with access to resources, health behaviors, social position, and health status variations. Predisposing attributes are difficult to change, and individuals have minimal control over them. This inability to control predisposing attributes can lead to discrimination to vulnerable populations. Discrimination by health care providers and health care delivery due to gender, financial status, and one’s race may been observed by these individuals (Shi & Singh, 2013). A common attribute of life seen in rural

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