The paper looks at the case of Groups at risk and vulnerable populations. It explains the members of this group and the characteristics. It highlights the possible reasons why such groups cannot advocate for themselves hence need a champion of their plights. It then highlights the possible interventions one can contribute to these groups.
Community Health
Groups at risk and vulnerable populations.
A group at risk for poor health is the group of people that are at risk of not receiving the needed healthcare regardless of their race, their income or insurance status, gender. These groups are such as children, the elderly, immigrants, and any other members of the society that are predisposed to risk factors that make them not able to get quality healthcare. Vulnerable populations are those groups of people that are not integrated into the healthcare system due to factors such as ethnic, geographic, economic, culture as well as health characteristics. Heightened vulnerability is contributed by factors such as poverty, lack of education, gender, age, ethnicity, homelessness, and limited access to resources, the isolation puts the people who are included in this group at risks for not being able to access the necessary medical care therefore a potential threat to the health of these people (Urban institution, 2010). The group of people is hence considered to be at a great risk for the development of problems in health. Examples of vulnerable populations are ethnic and racial minorities, people living in poverty both in urban and rural areas, people with disabilities or chronic conditions, immigrants that are not documented.
Groups at risk for poor health and vulnerable population are not in a position to advocate for themselves. This is due to the fact that they might not be aware that they are classified under these groups so they do not see any need for advocating. They are not in a position to fight for themselves in terms of resources. They also do not have the necessary tools or machinery when it comes to advocating for their rights when it comes to healthcare. They also do not have people that support them or are on their side when it comes fighting for their rights when it comes to quality healthcare. Advocating for vulnerable population or groups at risk requires a lot of dedication, compassion and skill. Advocating for these groups could be quite beneficial since these people are disadvantaged and are not able to speak for themselves and hence require someone to stand up for them. Though advocating for these people can be quite challenging it is so beneficial since they are given a voice through the person advocating for them. This means that they will now be able to access quality healthcare all because of the advocacy.
There can be various things that can be advocated for when it comes to groups at risks and vulnerable populations. The major area for advocating is for the provision of better health care services. This is through the equal opportunities for the people that are considered in these groups. These groups should also be educated on the circumstance they are in as well as creating positive environments. Community health nurses take the initiative to advocate for group at risk for poor health and vulnerable populations since it is key to ensuring that people have the experience of compassionate care as well as the benefits that come with palliative care.
These nurses advocate for these groups through the working for passage as well as the implementation of policies that will bring about the improvement of public health services to these populations. This can be for example through nurses who serve on local coalition for people who are not insured and working towards a plan that will see sharing provision of low-cost healthcare organizations as well as providers. However, this comes with various risks to the community nurses, these risks include loosing ones job since one will be viewed as inclining towards groups of people who do not have financial abilities. Another risk is lack of support by other health personal and thus their actions might fail to bear fruits.
Cultural competence
Cultural competent nurses need to understand their own world views of the patients and at the same time avoiding stereotypes and misapplications of scientific knowledge. Cultural competence is the obtaining information that pertains to culture and applying the gained knowledge. This means that the nurse listens to the patient trying to find out about the beliefs of the patient when it comes to health and illness. There are strategies that community health nurses can use when it comes to the process of cultural competence. One of these strategies is cultural brokering which is the act of linking, bridging or the mediation of a group of people that are different when it comes to background so that there can be reduced conflicts.
Therefore, a community health nurse can act as a cultural broker going between or advocating on behalf of another individual or particular group. There are various cultural aspects that these nurses can broker this include; diverse beliefs that read related to health and wellness and cultural variations when it comes to illness and diseases. There are cultural influences that help seek behaviors and attitudes towards the healthcare providers and use of indigenous and traditional practices in the different cultural groups. Therefore community health nurses should strive to be cultural brokers when it comes to their service provision (Flowers, 2010).
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