Vulnerable Population Essay

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Vulnerable Population Iran Soto HEALTH ASSESSMENT AND PROMOTION FOR VULNERABLE POPULATIONS/ NUR440 Sheila De Vaugh April 15, 2013 Vulnerable Population According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, a vulnerable population is defined as a group of persons whose range of options is severely limited, who are frequently subjected to coercion in their decision making, or who may be compromised in their ability to give informed consent. When reading this definition, many people are considered to be vulnerable. My personal definition of vulnerable population is someone who can not defend themselves or speak up for themselves. There are many who belong to one certain group of vulnerability while others belong to one or more. Depending on the vulnerable population or category that is considered, the risk factors differ from themselves and in severity. A terminally ill person is considered to be vulnerable. "Many people are afraid of finding themselves in a hopeless condition or unconscious and connected to machines in a hospital and being kept alive artificially for a long period of time, they are afraid of pointless operations and ineffective pharmaceutical therapies. Against this helplessness and feeling of being at the mercy of high-tech medicine, there is only one tried and tested method: patient's instructions which can be legally implemented (Reynolds, 2013).” A person who is terminal ill deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. It comes to a point where the patient is at a breaking point at where they are losing total control of themselves. This brings on other negative effects sometimes they become vulnerable and depressed. For example, an article that I read in the Winnipeg Press, mentioned a female diagnosed with Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). There is no cure for this

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