To: Mr. Matthew Campbell
From: Senator J. Wolohan

To whom it mat concern,
I recently reviewed the letter that you wrote me regarding implementation of federal funds, or advocacy for such funds, for federally assisted families to receive outpatient care. You wrote in your letter about how I probably get letters like that everyday. Well that is true. I usually receive 20-50 letters of such topics everyday. I am sorry to report that two current bills on the Senate Healthcare Commitee's agenda have not received enough votes to pass on to the main Senate.

I know many Americans are faced with Healthcare dilemas everyday, such as how am I going to pay for this, or does this job carry good insurance? I am afraid that our healthcare situation is not one of legislature's doing but rather our economy's. Our economy is unstable. Job's are being lost by the thousands everyday and the Federal Government just cannot hand out insurance to everyone that gets laid off. In short, I sympathize with your concern and wish you the best. However, we must keep a logical outlook on this matter. If we had the perfect America, healthcare would be free. Instead we live in a world where change is the norm. Thus, we must deal with that change when it is dealt our way.

I hope this leads to further insight into your topic and where the federal government fits into the picture. Thank you for you letter Mr. Campbell.

Sincerely,

Sen. J. Wolohan

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Content

This assignment was titled a Multigenre Research Project, or MRP. It was quite different than any other assignment I had completed in the past. It took an online-research-multigenre approach that challenges the normal thinking of research work. It was first comprised of gather material and doing work online, such as building WebLogs, subscribing to mailing lists and gathering resources only on the internet.

The MRP was composed of a Preface, Acknowlegdments, Information about the Author, Six Genres, Reflection and References. Three of the six genres were predetermined by our instructor. They were a poem, a PowerPoint presentation and a Webliography. The other three I was able to choose. They were a letter to the politician, letter to the editor and a brochure. Each of the genres had to be presented in a different voice, such as client, clinician and third party insurance company in my case.

A unifying theme had to be developed to tie the whole piece together. This would not only help the developer of the MRP to understand where their project was going, but also help the reader flow through the MRP with a knowledge of what is going on or being targeted.

Process

Upon completion of the MRP, I look back at the amount of time and effort that was put into completing this project and say to myself "I have learned more through the completion of this MRP than any other project I have completed." The MRP gave me options, but kept me on a narrow path to completion. The MRP gave me an instructor who was flexible but on the level when it came to finished products. Overall, the MRP put me in three different perspectives on my topic, advocacy for funding for outpatient services to all who require assistance.

Within the first week of this class, I thought I was going to do poorly because of hear-say and looking at the syllabus and thinking "when will I have time to complete these assignments." So first thing first, I had to decide on an essential question. Something that sparked an interest in me and at the same time was of interest to the general public. I first started out with advocacy for just speech-language services, but soon found out that information was rather scarce on such a narrow topic. From there, I developed a broader question of how to provide or advocate for funding for all outpatient services to those who meet the requirements for federal assistance. This topic gave me a wider range of resources as well as a wider target of people with the same interest. Upon completing the essential question, foundation questions were formed to help further guide my research so that I can stay on topic. The next step from here was to develop the six genres.

The thought load for completing the genres was sort of 50/50. Half of them were already chosen for me and the other three I had to choose myself. During my research, my interest had taken a direction toward insurance companies and their outpatient coverage plans. So, I thought that the PowerPoint presentation and the brochure would fit nicely with a big corporation. Then there were four. Thus, the letter to the editor was in the voice of the client and the poem, webliography and letter to the politician was in the voice of me, the clinician. Ok, the voices are down now where is the audience? The audience is anyone who shares an interest in this topic of advocacy and may need a startig ground for their pursuit.

Although I thought that me doing this assignment would not be worth its time because of my topic, I have now realized that others depend on what others accomplish. So I am going to keep working with this idea and toward its perfection in our national healthcare system.

Premise

Now that I have completed this project I now see things in my life I have never seen before. As a result of completing this project, I have realized that the whole process of selecting a topic, research, genres and even the reflection are all a manifestation of my inner self. That is that I am always looking out for the other person before myself, but I have never realized that until just this moment. Its true what they say about a persons personality and true colors showing through in their writing. Well, I just got a big dose of inner self realization through my reflection.

It makes so much sense now though. All through the process of selecting my topic and questions, I kept asking myself what do other people need in our area of work that I can help provide, besides our basic services. Even in the early stages my true colors were showing. I just think its a weird feeling when you realize something new and it hits you like a ton of bricks.

Thanks to this MRP I am now aware of this nations, as well as the worlds, problem with the whole healthcare picture. There are too many people needing services and not enough professionals to step up to the plate and fight insurance companies and ultimately the federal government to ensure that EVERYONE gets the required therapy they need and deserve to but them back as close to normal as possible.

I feel, thanks to the MRP, secure in my actions and navigation of not only the World Wide Web, but of all tasks that I complete. I have done my work, reviewed others and now feel that the future is in this type of interaction and learning. I am a better learner and applier of material thanks to this class and its requirements

In the end thats what it is all about learning. I hope you have learned something from my MRP and I hope that you and myself will continue to learn through this type of interaction the rest of our lives.

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American Speech-Language and Hearing Association Website
www.asha.org
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Bell, Clark W. (2001). Getting Back to ‘normal’. Modern Healthcare 31(40), 32. (From Masterfile: EBSCO Publishing) Retrieved July 20, 2002 from the World Wide Web: search.epnet.com
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Highlights at Congress. (2002). Nursing Older People 14(3), 30. (From Masterfile: EBSCO Publishing) Retrieved July 20, 2002 from the World Wide Web: search.epnet.com
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Thompson, Roger. (1994). Health reforms near showdown. Nations Business 82(9), 26. (From Masterfile: EBSCO Publishing) Retrieved July 20, 2002 from the World Wide Web: search.epnet.com
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Dixon, Jennifer. (2001). Another healthcare funding review. British Medical Journal 322(7282), 312-313. (From Masterfile: EBSCO Publishing) Retrieved July 20, 2002 from the World Wide Web: search.epnet.com
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McCue, Michael T. (2000). The feds get a taste of their own medicine. Managed Healthcare 8(4), 4. (From Masterfile: EBSCO Publishing) Retrieved July 20, 2002 from the World Wide Web: search.epnet.com
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Maclean (2001). Health-care showdown. Maclean's 114 (33), 14. Retrieved July 13, 2002 from the World Wide Web: search.epnet.com
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Bay, K.S., Saunders L.D., Wilson D.R. (1999). Socioeconomic risk factors and population-based regional allocation of healthcare funds. Health Services Managment research: an official journal of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration, 12 (2), 79-91. Retrieved July 13, 2002 from the World Wide Web: search.epnet.com
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Harrar, Sari (2002). Win the Insurance War. Prevention, 54 (8), 44. Retrieved July 13, 2002 from the World Wide Web: search.epnet.com
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Fiesta, Janine (1996). Legal issues in the information age - part 1. Nursing Management, 27 (8), 15. Retrieved July 13, 2002 from the World Wide Web: search.epnet.com
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Pope, Kenneth S. (1990). Ethical and malpractice issues in hospital practice. American Psychologist, 45 (9) 1066-1070. Retrieved July 13, 2002 from the World Wide Web: search.epnet.com

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