Vulnerable populations refer to groups of people at a disadvantage due to their gender, race, class, health conditions, and other intersectional characteristics. This puts them in danger, at risk, and susceptible to oppression by people around them (Knijnenburg et al., 2022).
African-Americans are a great example of a vulnerable population in the United States. Their race and ethnicity make them an easy target for discrimination and unfair treatment. They are designated vulnerable since they cannot protect themselves from others and lack the proper platform to air their grievances and problems.
African-Americans accounted for 12.4% of the United States’ total population, equating to 41.1 million (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). Some challenges include; racism, inaccessibility to health care and educational services, poverty, unemployment, and living in violent and high crime-rated cities. They also face mental health issues and have no help to cope or resolve the problems. Due to unemployment, most are in poor living conditions and below the poverty line. Living in high crime-rated areas consequently leads many of them to get into crime and gangs, which leads to conviction and imprisonment.
African-Americans cannot advocate for themselves since they lack proper government representation and a platform to speak about their issues. Most of them are uneducated and therefore don’t know their rights or how they should be treated. They are also constantly looked at as criminals making it hard to speak up for fear of being misjudged. The ethical issues include protecting their rights, providing employment opportunities, and creating safe workplaces. Other issues involve constructing health facilities, offering affordable health insurance, and improving security and infrastructure around their neighborhood.
Nursing advocacy would help the African-Americans by advocating for the provision of affordable health coverage and also fighting for their rights. Their advocacy would also ensure that their mental health is addressed and talked about.
References
Knijnenburg, B. P., Page, X., Wisniewski, P., Lipford, H. R., Proferes, N., & Romano, J. (2022). Modern socio-technical perspectives on privacy.
U.S. Census Bureau (2018). Improved race, ethnicity measures reveal U.S. population much more multiracial.The Census Bureau. Web.