Health Care for Backward Population

This essay explores the impact of stigmatization on health care for backward population, challenges of health literacy, and nursing strategies to overcome them. It also discusses the moral judgment faced by health care professionals when treating the alleged offender.

Running head: HEALTH CARE FOR BACKWARD POPULATION
Health care for backward population
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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HEALTH CARE FOR BACKWARD POPULATION
Introduction:
The vulnerable population of teenage illicit drug users receive discrimination
even in health care sector, the impact of the discrimination by the care provider effects
their care outcomes on multiple levels. The marginalized groups in the society experience
inequitable health care accessibility due to various different circumstances such as socio-
economic position, discrimination and social stigmatization, even the approach of health care
providers. The case study describes the scenario where an alleged shooter has performed a
massacre in a shopping centre injuring different population groups. The chosen target
population for this assignment is the teenage illicit substance abusers who are one of the
victims of the massacre in the shopping centre. The impact of stigmatization on the target
group chosen has the potential to impact the care outcomes for this population. This essay
will attempt to discover the effect of stigmatization by the health care staff on the chosen
marginalized groups, the possible restrictions associated health literacy and the challenges of
successful discharge information dissemination, and relevant nursing strategies that can be
implemented to overcome the detrimental impact of the considerable stigmatization on the
marginalized group. Lastly, the essay will also focus on the dilemma and moral judgment
faced by health care staff when caring for the alleged shooter in this scenario.
The effect of stigmatisation by health care staff on the chosen patient group and the
relevant nursing strategies:
As discussed by the Miller-Day et al. (2014), the people that are associated with illicit
addiction and the stigma and social taboo that these populations have to face from the various
different sectors of the society has direct links with the health outcomes of the patients under
consideration. Lack of any social support from the different social structures are another
considerable challenge that further complicates the physical and mental health status of the

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teenagers with illicit drug abuse as well (Chang et al., 2016, pp. 513-525). The very
foundation of the care services provided to the patients is based on the caring and nurturing
the health and safety of the sick and ailing. However, when the concepts of stigmatization is
integrated with the caring for the vulnerable populations such as the teenagers that are
associated with illicit drug abuse, the quality of the care will drastically reduce and this might
harm the patient groups as well. Lack of public awareness and literacy regarding the fact that
substance abuse is also a sickness and not a lifestyle choice is the main contributor to the
existing stigmatization and bullying. As argued by Potter et al. (2017, pp. 185-190), this
social convention has been reported to cloud the judgment of the care staff as well and as a
result their behaviour towards these vulnerable populations when they are seeking out
physical or mental health care. On the other hand, there is mounting evidence that the most of
the nursing care staff still perceive the illicit drug abusers to be dangerous and unpredictable
(Sainam, Putsis & Zauberman, 2018, pp. 317-324). The lack of proper knowledge and
training for managing the illicit drug users is reflected in the care staff avoiding to interact to
engage with the patients, converting the care approach to non-compassionate, labelling and
discriminating them and in general not meeting the patient centred compassionate care
principles. The result of the cumulative stigmatization from the care providers who are
expected to be nurturing and understanding from the patient perspectives leads to the
development of self-stigma which in turn convinces the teenagers with drug addiction of their
lack of self-worth, lack of confidence and might lead to self-harming and suicidal tendencies
among the illicit drug abusers (Manhica et al., 2017, pp. 526-534).
The strategies that can help improve the experience of hospice stay of this
marginalized group can be multiple. Taking a completely impartial and non-judgmental
approach to communication and care for the illicit drug abusers with the rest of the victims
can be an extreme help for improving the experience and the physical environment of the

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illicit drug abusers. As discussed by Reisner et al. (2015, pp. 243-256), the communication
and patient engagement has a significant impact on the care experience that the patients
attain. Most importantly for the, vulnerable populations, the impact of the communication
and engagement has a profound role in overall health and wellbeing of these patient groups.
Hence, another considerable strategy will be to engage and effectively communicate with the
target group taking attention to incorporate a non-judgmental and accepting approach to
communication and care (Carpenter, McClellan & Rees, 2017, pp. 63-72). The third strategy
which will enhance their emotional wellbeing while staying in the hospital facility for the
care delivery is the incorporation of their family members in the care planning so that they
can feel a sense of belonging and are not feeling lonely while staying in the facility.
The challenges of health literacy for the patient group when offering discharge
information and nursing strategies to promote health literacy:
The stigmatization, bullying and belittlement of the teenagers that are stuck in the web
of illicit drug usage has affected the services they can find from the health care context as
well, which affects both their physical and mental health status (Li et al., 2018, pp.277-285). I
have chosen the teenager with illicit drug abuse as the marginalized group to focus on for this
paper. It has to be mentioned in this context that for the vulnerable population groups with
considerable amount of social isolation and stigmatization, the aspect of optimal health
literacy is also extremely limited, it has to be mentioned in this context that health literacy
plays a fundamental part in understanding the need for health care and also understanding the
health promotional and preventative behaviours during the discharge planning. For the
vulnerable health population that has been chosen for the assignment, the teenage illicit drug
users also have very limited health literacy and hence the limited health literacy of this
population can be a considerable challenge for the discharge planning and patient education.
As mentioned by Miller-Day et al. (2014), the introduction of the illicit drugs at an early age,

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discontinuing education, and mixing with the wrong peers are considered to be considerable
aspects associated with lack of or low health literacy in the teenage illicit drug users. This
lack of health literacy on the other hand can cause significant difficulties in disseminating the
discharge information.
As discussed by Rosenberg et al. (2017, pp. 93-99), the nursing staff addressing to the
teenage illicit drug abusers have to deal with aggression, disengagement, confusion,
irritability and overall lack of co-operation from the target population. In most cases, the
impact of the this lack of co-operation is reflected in the success of the patient education
session during the discharge planning via the means of the target population not
understanding the content of the information disseminated to them, not being able to process
the information, not being able to adhere to the lifestyle changes or health promotional
behaviours and lastly not interpreting the need for any health promotional activities being
followed or any changes being implemented. In this case, a few considerable nursing
strategies that can be implemented in this case to overcome the mentioned challenges include
therapeutic communication, digitally assisted patient education, teach back method, one to
one counselling, and implementation of regular messaging service which will keep reminding
the teenagers with illicit drug use (World Health Organization, 2016). On a more elaborative
note, the aid of therapeutic communication and one to one counselling will help the nurses be
able to gain the full attention of the patient and administer clear information to the patients.
The digitally assisted patient education will help also in attracting the attention of the
addiction victims and help them understand the instructions in easy and simple animated
format. The teach back method will help the nurses ensure that target patients have clearly
understood and interpreted the information that has been disseminated to them. Lastly, the
impact of prolonged drug usage has significant impact on cognitive abilities, and hence,
remembering to follow certain instructions such as medication regimen and wound

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management. The regular messaging service will act like a reminder helping the target group
deal attain recovery successfully (Tucker, Cheong & Chandler, 2016, pp. 539-545)
Moral judgment by health care professionals when treating the alleged offender:
The impact of the belittlement affects their senses of belonging and also targets their
social identity which in turn has been reported to impact the help seeking behaviour among
these disadvantaged marginalized groups (Wen, Hockenberry & Cummings, 2015, pp 64-80).
Moral judgment plays a fundamental role in understanding and evaluating the care decision
making of the health care professionals. It has to be mentioned in this context that the health
care professional are faced with considerable moral dilemma which imparts a significant
impact on not just the care approach taken by the target patient groups but also the behaviour
of the care provider as well. Similarly, this case situation involves an alleged offender who
had carried out a mass shooting at a shopping mall at unsuspecting innocent crowd. While
treating the perpetrator of such a terrorizing criminal activity, the personal grudge or
displeasure can easily affect the approach and nature of the health care professional while
treating the patient. This moral dilemma is associated with various overlapping ethical
principles which has to be taken into consideration (Austin, 2016, pp. 131-133). It has to be
mentioned that the health care staff are not above human flaws by any means, the natural
reaction to someone committing a crime that resulted in a blood bath is undoubtedly going to
implement a very negative behavioural approach to the conscience of the nurses that are
addressing the mentioned patient. Similarly, as the nurses in this case have also been
attending to the victims of the crime scene as well. This ensures the nurses developing a
stronger emotional connection with the victims of the crime scene and as a result a sense of
animosity might develop in the care professionals against the alleged shooter when attending
to him. However, the impact of the personal sense of justice and anger or animosity can affect

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the care approach of the care professional and also cloud the clinical decision making power
(Gallagher, Webster & Aschengrau, 2017, p. 26).
Considering moral judgment, the health care professionals use both reason and
emotion while making decisions regarding the moral dilemma. The moral judgment
undoubtedly is a fundamental right of each and every human being. However, for the nursing
professionals the moral judgment or personal thoughts needs to be managed carefully so that
it does not affect their caring responsibilities and job roles. It has to be acknowledged in this
case that primary principle of nursing care is to prioritizing the needs of the patient. Each and
every individual has an equal right to medical care. Along with that, in this case, while
attending to the alleged offender, the ethical principles of nursing will have to be considered
as well (Baggio et al., 2016, pp. 485-490). According to the principle of beneficence and
nonmaleficence, the nurses are required to provide care that is safe, effective care
interventions which only benefits the patient and is not associated with taking interventions
that will not lead to any harm to the patient (Parahoo, 2014). In this case as well, even though
the alleged offender has committed a crime, the nurses will have to provide care intervention
to help restore optimal health to adhere to the ethical principle of nursing and the
fundamental right to medical care of all individuals.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, healthcare is not just limited to diagnosis, treatment, prevention
or management of the disease, health care is also associated with preserving and enhancing
the physical as well as mental wellbeing of the patients. Hence, undoubtedly health care is
one of the greatest requirements of the patients, each and every individual living in this
society deserve equal access to the health care services. The vulnerable population that has
been chosen for this assignment had been teenage illicit drug users who had been the victim
of a crime. Stigmatization by the health care providers is a huge burden on the already

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stigmatized populations, and in this case after being affected by the trauma of such a situation
the need for the care intervention and approach of the care professionals to be non-
judgmental and compassionate is optimal. This essay had been successful in exploring the
challenges faced while caring for vulnerable population and illustrated achievable strategies
that can be implemented to overcome the challenges in caring and discharge planning. Lastly,
moral judgment while attending to the alleged shooter that the care professional might face is
also discussed in detail as well.

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