Health and Poor Populations

Vulnerable Populations: Low Income Adults Low income adults in Wyandot County, Kansas City, Kansas, are vulnerable to the socio-economic factors that commonly have a negative health impact. These factors include low wages, unstable family life, risky sexual behavior, drug and alcohol abuse, high crime, low education, obesity, diabetes, and poor access to health care (Boyer et al., 2017; Guariguata, 2014; Osborn, Squires, Doty, Sarnak & Schneider, 2016).

Low income adults, therefore, are at risk of not receiving the proper health education they need to maintain healthy lifestyle; they are at risk of lacking a cogent support system to maintain a healthy lifestyle; they are at risk of not having adequate access to health care, whereby they maintain obtain necessary health education and preventive care.

Understanding the needs and risks of vulnerable populations is important to the clinical population I will serve as an advanced practice nurse because community health is a field that demands more attention especially from APRNs in today’s world. And as the Institute for Research on Poverty (2013) shows, there is a strong “link between poverty and poor health. People with more income tend to be healthier and live longer” (p. 1).

There are environmental, social and psychological factors that are generated within low income communities that negatively impact the health of the community. For example, “material factors like unhealthy housing, unemployment, and food insecurity all affect one’s health. The amount of exposure one has to pollution and other biohazards can also lead to poor health” (Institute for Research on Poverty, 2013, p. 2). As an APRN, I will be able to focus on this population by improving the community’s access to care.

The role of the APRN was originally conceived as a way of filling the gap in primary care when primary care physicians began moving into specialized medicine. APRNs have the training, expertise and ability to diagnose, treat and provide preventive care to all communities. In Kansas City, the low income adult population is particularly large and vulnerable and therefore is a community that we as health care providers have to be more mindful of.

Ethical considerations that apply to this population include the need to identify local values and find ways to align them with public health policy so that this community is better supported. Another consideration that should be made is the problem of fragmentation among the community: many low income adults have poor support systems, poor education, and poor health. Their values are not always adequately defined because they have not fully reached a level of self-actualization.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the top level of development is where values begin to take shape—but for many low income adults, they are still trying to fulfill lower level needs—such as food, shelter, and loving relationships. In order to approach this community from an ethical standpoint, the needs of the population have to be taken into consideration so that assumptions are not made about their actual values. References Boyer, C. B., Greenberg, L., Chutuape, K., Walker, B., Monte, D., Kirk, J., ..

& Adolescent Medicine Trials Network. (2017). Exchange of sex for drugs or money in adolescents and young adults: an examination of sociodemographic factors, HIV-related risk, and community context. Journal of.