{Author Name [first-name middle-name-initials last-name]}
{Institution Affiliation [name of Author’s institute]}
The vulnerability is an emerging term in nursing that is essentially linked to the health and health complexities. In nursing area, it represents the vulnerability towards a particular problem for a particular disease. In this essay, a population of African American is taken as a vulnerable population to cardiovascular diseases or CVDs. The paper provides a health promotion proposal implicating the theory of vulnerability for the CVD risks of the target populations of African-Americans. According to a Statistical Fact Sheet from American Heart Association (2013), 44.4% African-American men and 48.9% women of middle age (above 20 years) have CVD. The data from 2009 suggested that 48,070 black females and 46,334 black males died due to CVD (Heart.org, 2016).
Integration of theory of vulnerability in target population of African Americans will facilitate the understanding of the core reason for their vulnerability to CVD as well as help in identifying their healthcare needs so that enhanced protection can be assured. The vulnerability can be categorized into three mutually dependent dimensions namely, individual, programmatic and social. Individual vulnerability links to the individual preventive measures connected with personal characteristics such as age, gender, emotional development, sexuality, self-perception and attitudes about the risks, obtained knowledge about the problem, and faith. Programmatic vulnerability will consider the public policies of managing CVDs, the projected goals and measures of preventive programs, and allocation and organization of the resources for anticipation and control. Social vulnerability considers the socio-economic configuration, community policies targeting the health and education, cultural values and ideologies that determine the individual and programmatic vulnerabilities (Nichiata et al., 2008). The vulnerability is like a dynamic process, and through integrating all these three aspects a population can be prevented from crossing its vulnerability threshold (Nichiata et al., 2008).
For a particular health promotion proposal the essentially required actions are:
1. Understanding of the current data and causes of vulnerability in the progression of Heart disease development.
2. A step by step approach according to the available evidence stats and a futuristic vision to tackle the problem if the epidemic of CVDs reverts.
3. Designing intervention approaches based on five major elements that when executed can bring about the change in the scenario according to the futuristic apparition.
4. An immediate and efficient action plan that can transform the current information into an effective public health action plan.
5. Strengthening the aptitude of public health resources with novel competencies and expanding options for investments and stakeholders to multiply the resources and sustain the preventive policies.
6. Systematic monitoring and assessing of the impacts of intervention are required to investigate the effective frequency and needed improvements.
7. Policy enhancement is another defining stage to evade the loopholes of the system and accelerate the process to meet the requirement.
8. Setting a timely goal that will determine that in a given period the vulnerability towards CVD among African Americans will be reduced up to 50%.
9. Targeting a precise extent of the focused population will define that how much people will be approached during this period, and they will receive help regarding the CVD.
10. Personal level learning is also a significant part of the whole promotion plan that will enable African Americans to self-care and how to protect themselves and family members from the risks of CVDs.
11. Due to a sedentary lifestyle and low socio-economic condition the target population is categorized vulnerable that is why it is necessary to teach them how to change their lifestyle as well as improve their social and economic conditions.
12. Personal as well social level interactive learning sessions regarding causative determinants will help them to understand the process of disease and afterward impacts.
13. Defining markers to evaluate the life and health status of the population will determine the success rate of the interventions.
For example, recently the Association of the Black Cardiologists have commenced a public educational crusade that targets to encourage the healthy lifestyle choices to put off the CVDs. The program named as “Children Should Know Their Grandparents: A Guide to a Healthy Heart” motivates people to know their medical family histories that can make them aware of their vulnerabilities (Cdc.gov, 2016; Heart.org, 2016).
Reference
Cdc.gov,. (2016). A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke. Retrieved
25 February 2016, from http://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/action_plan/pdfs/action_plan_full.pdf
Heart.org,. (2016). African Americans & Cardiovascular Diseases. Retrieved 25 February 2016,
public/@wcm/@sop/@smd/documents/downloadable/ucm_319568.pdf
Nichiata, L. Y. I., Bertolozzi, M. R., Takahashi, R. F., & Fracolli, L. A. (2008). The use of the"
vulnerability" concept in the nursing area. Revista latino-americana de
enfermagem, 16(5), 923-928.
