Vulnerable Populations in the Workplace

Vulnerable Population in the Workplace

Thomas B. Bair

NUR/440

Vulnerable Population in the Workplace Project

Nurses and other health care practitioners are the links between medical sphere and the vulnerable populations. Although nurses are not responsible for the decision-making related to social equalities distribution, they can influence that decision because of their practical experience and empirical competency.

It is the issue of social resources and benefits distributions that influences the vulnerability of certain layers of society. Inequalities in relation to the social resources distribution can result in the increased vulnerability of people deprived of certain benefits (Nyamathi, Koniak-Griffin, & Greengold, 2007). There are three types of justice widely discussed in the nursing research: social, distributive, and market justice. Both social and distributive justice deal with equal distribution of benefits, goods and services in the society, whereas market justice believes that various benefits should be distributed to people on the basis of authoritative guidelines. Though they may seem similar to a certain extent because they deal with justice in general, they also differ significantly. According to Boutain (2012), social justice concerns the balance of benefits and burdens distribution; distributive justice aims at more material issues like goods and services distribution; market justice is the most separated concept which accepts certain inequality in distribution of goods as far as this inequality is justified by the fair market system (Boutain, 2012). Market justice is the one currently dominating the sphere of health care, and it is in the power of health care practitioners, namely nurses, to turn this type of justice to social or distributive justice. Social and distributive types of justice are considered as the most appropriate frameworks to deal with the issues of inequality in health care, with social justice being less...