At risk population are individuals that have shared known risk factors or exposures that poses a threat to their health (Maurer and Smith 2013).
Some of the common factors that affect the risk of harmful health events cannot change, such factors include age, gender, race and ethnicity while other factors which can be changed include environmental, psychosocial and sociopolitical.
Vulnerable population is a group or groups that are more likely to develop health-related problems, have more difficulty accessing health care to address those health problems, and are more likely to experience a poor outcome or shorter life span because of those health conditions.
More Vulnerable to health risks including the poor, the homeless, the disabled, the severely mentally ill, the very young and the very old (Maurer and Smith, 2013).
This are populations that are at greater risk for poor health status and health care access. Vulnerable populations generally include racial and ethnic minorities, low SES populations, and those without adequate potential access to care (Shi& Stevens (2005).
I believe that both of groups are at risk and vulnerable in one way or the other. An example of a vulnerable group is people with ‘Malaria in underserved communities, they cannot be able to advocate for themselves because they don't have the means and the enough resources to get treatment or even buy mosquito nets.
An example of at risk is someone who is a smoker, he chooses to smoke buying tobacco as much as the risk have the means and ways to advocate for themselves they choose not to do it. As nurses we have to be both advocates for the vulnerable and educators for the at risk.