Stanhope and Lancaster (2008) define vulnerable populations as “those defined as being at greatest risk of poor health status and access to healthcare” (p.712). The role of a public health nurse when dealing with a vulnerable population is to establish interventions to help break the cycle of vulnerability, thereby helping to eliminate health disparities within the population. The term “risk” helps public health nurses determine the likelihood of something happening to a person. This epidemiological term is used with the triangle host, agent and environment as opposed to the health of a population. The author will discuss vulnerability discovered within a community based on community survey and definition of risks and interventions on the intervention wheel and with concepts related to the human becoming school of thought in relation to poverty and alcoholism . The diagnosis that will be discussed in this paper is the risk of alcoholism in the 92509 zip code community related to poverty-related stressors. In an assessment, factors such as the physical environment, social environment, and personal habits are all obtained to help establish the risks a population may have in correlation with history and factors that influence health status and outcome of a person within a network of causality. A causal network according to Stanhope and Lancaster (2008) is “an epidemiological triangle, reflecting the complex interrelationships of numerous factors in which they interact, to increase or decrease the risk of disease”. Public health nurses can use this causal network as a tool to help assign risk factors that impact a community (p.711). Educational level, living conditions, poverty level, genetic factors, and access to health care can all be applied to... middle of paper... 2011, from the HHS GOV website: http ://aspe. hhs.gov/poverty/11poverty.shtmlRoom, R. (2005). Stigma, social inequality and alcohol and drug use. Drug and Alcohol Review, 24(2), 143-155. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.Shi L, Stevens (2005) Vulnerability and unmet health needs: the influence of multiple risk factors. J.Gen InteroStanhope M. & Lancaster, J. (2008). Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community (7th ed.). St. Louis: Mosby.Valdez, A., Kaplan, C., & Curtis, R. (2007). Aggressive crime, alcohol and drug use, and poverty concentrated in 24 urban areas of the United States. The American Journal of Drug And Alcohol Abuse, 33(4), 595-603. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.(2008, August). [Comment] ADDRESSING INEQUALITIES IN ALCOHOL PROBLEMS: THE MARATHON HAS JUST BEGUN. Dependence. pp.1294-1295. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2008.02310.x.