There are many individual, environmental, and societal factors influencing the health of vulnerable and marginalized populations. Individual factors can be identified in each person, and they may vary depending on that person’s lifestyle. Some factors within each individual person could be their attitude toward health and life in general, knowledge, skills, genetics, and their own personal characteristics. Environmental factors could include chemical safety, air pollution, climate change, natural disasters, disease, poor water quality, and global environment issues. Environmental pollutants can cause health problems in the future. Having that irritation in your body could lead to respiratory disease, heart disease, and some types of cancer. Just to put this in perspective of a vulnerable population, the homeless are surrounded by pollution and chemicals in the air within the environment. This could put them at that increased risk for respiratory, cardiac, or cancer issues. Societal factors could be things under our control, but also things that people are born into. Someone’s socioeconomic status, education, neighborhood and physical environment, employment, social support networks, and access to health all effect their health status. People within low-income households may not experience proper education, which could later affect their employment, access to health, and life skills in general. With that being said, they would be at an increased risk of poor health in the future.
Cultures are a part of life that has a great effect on the health care they receive. Different cultures have different beliefs in the care and medicine they receive. Different perceptions of health, illness and death, beliefs about causes of diseases, approaches to health promotion, and how pain and illness are experienced and expressed are also forces through culture that influence vulnerability and marginalization. Social forces could include disruption of communication, power supply, water supply, public services, and vulnerable residential settings. For example, people in vulnerable residential settings could have a lack of access to crucial services such as: transportation, power supply, water supply, and sanitation. The political forces that could affect vulnerability are changes of tax legislation, consumer protection and employment regulations. If someone was unable to get a proper education, has lack of transportation, and is unable to get a job due to the employment regulations, they would have a greater chance of developing health issues in the future. Employment, community safety, income, housing, transportation, educational attainment, social support, and discrimination are some examples of economic forces that could influence vulnerability and marginalization. The world is ever changing, but history of health care still plays a big role on how health care workers think and act today. History may influence how different people are treated and even how different patients want to be treated.
Improving access to education in early childhood improves health. The world needs to make sure that children are being educated even if they are born into a low-income housing without transportation. Nutrition, physical activity, and safety within communities can be achieved through urban planning and community development. By being aware of the resources within our communities and making healthy choices, it will improve health behaviors in the residents. Homelessness is a big contributor for becoming part of a vulnerable population. Between all the pollution and lack of shelter and food, it could really have negative effects on health. Getting people off the streets and into housing programs for low-income residents would be a great way to decrease the chance of having bad health in the future. Along with housing in general, being cautious of housing quality is a way to decrease vulnerability. For example, checking lead levels and overall air quality in houses would reduce lead poisoning and the possible development of asthma. These are some strategies I feel would resolve health and healthcare disparities, which would improve the health of vulnerable and marginalized populations.
By writing about vulnerable and marginalized populations I was able to really think about all aspects that are part of making a population vulnerable. When caring for a patient, it should be the nurses job to look at your patient as a whole person and have these tough conversations with them regarding their life outside of the hospitals. If you had a homeless patient who needed to come back for treatments, we need to be able to work with them and use our recourses in order to get them the access to the health care they need. I feel as though I should start thinking about the background of each patient more than I have in the past. Knowing where the person came from and how they live their life tells a lot about someone and a lot about the reason they are in the hospital. When it comes to culture, that is something I also want to consider more often. We are not expected to know all cultures and all religions but having those conversations with patients and having them teach you about it will enable a care plan to be made that takes their beliefs and needs into account. I think it is very important for all nurses and health care workers to learn about forces that influence vulnerability and marginalization in order to provide optimal patient-centered care.
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