Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 6

Report - Essay Example Additionally, health education is offered to health care workers and patients so that treatment and care is offered appropriately for quick recovery. Health education will also facilitate in developing trust with physicians and treatments offered. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 1. Introduction and Rationale for the Study 5 2. Doppler Assessment - Background Information Regarding Doppler 6 2.1 Evidence in Support 6 6 2.2 Potential Disadvantages 7 7 2.3 Barriers to Implementation 7 3. Underpinning Policy 8 3.1 RCN 8 3.2 SIGN 8 3.3 CREST 9 3.4 Local Trust Policies 9 9 4. Health Education 10 4.1 Implications for the Patient 10 10 4.2 Secondary Intervention as Aids Treatment Decisions, How? 10 10 4.3 Implications for the Trust 10 5. Conclusions 11 5.1 Effective in Aiding Diagnosis 11 5.2 Limitations if used in Isolation 11 5.3 Risk of Misinterpretation 11 5.4 Referral for Vascular Assessment 12 6. Recommendations 12 6.1 Continue to use Doppler 12 6.2 Use in Conjunction with Leg Ulc er Assessment Tool 13 6.3 Ensure Programme of Education is Available for Staff 13 6.4 Ensure Patients Are Educated With Regard To Symptoms and When to Have Doppler Assessment 13 References 15 Bibliography 20 1. Introduction and Rationale for the Study Mrs. P has a wound in her legs for 4 weeks and there was no sign of heal with normal medication and care. On diagnosis by a vascular surgeon, it is identified that Mrs. P has leg ulceration. Moreover, Mrs. P should undertake other assessments with the intention of determining the type of leg ulcer and the factors accountable for this disease. The common health related problem amid the general population is leg ulcers. Leg ulcers are usually identified as wounds in the lower part of the legs. People with poor blood circulation or inappropriate working valves in the veins are the ones affected with leg ulcers. This disease is common in the adult population with age above 65 years. This disease is caused mainly due to certain factors incl uding obesity, smoking and diabetes. The disease takes a longer time to heal due to pathogenic factors in the infected area. Clinically it is identified that there are two types of leg ulcers, which include arterial ulcers and venous ulcers. Venous ulcers are common in leg ulceration. Venous ulcers are found in 1.2-3.2 rate of per 1000 people, which implies that around 70,000 to 190,000 people in the UK are suffering from this disease. The disease is required to be treated in an appropriate manner to minimise the risks associated with deteriorating wound conditions, harming the patients and delay in healing procedures (Posnett, 2008; Rippon & et. al., 2007). The common causes of leg ulcers are venous insufficiency, arterial occlusion, microcirculatory disorders, physical or chemical injury, infectious diseases, vasculitis, neuropathic diseases and haematological disorders among others. Heath care workers offering care and treatment to people with this disease must have adequate know ledge in relation to clinical picture, diagnostic possibilities, pathogenesis and treatment modalities about the causes of leg ulcers. Leg ulcers should be identified and treated suitably in its initial stage as later the risks increases leading to morbidity as along with impaired life quality. Additionally, cost of treatment and care in the initial stage is economical, but in the later stage of this disease cost has shown a considerable amount of rise of around ?200 million and $1 billion on an annual basis in the United Kingdom (UK) and United

Reflective Essay on Mentorship in Student Nursing

Reflective Essay on Mentorship in Student Nursing This piece of work will examine the process of assessment within my role as a mentor for a student nurse. The assignment will follow the sequence of events from initial contact of the student to the final interview and completion of documentation. It will also analyse the action plans that were written at the initial and interim interviews. To protect the identity of the student, I have used the name Jane in keeping with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2008a) guidance on confidentiality. Jane is a second year student and this placement will be her first community placement of the year. For the purpose of this assignment, I will use a reflective approach. The literature shows that authors such as Schon (1995) and Benner (1984) concentrated on the role of reflection in the work of health care professionals however, Brookfield (1995) explored different sources of information and feedback that are available to teachers. Brookfield uses the term â€Å"critically reflective lenses† through which professionals can view their teaching. Reflection can improve the way we teach and the way we learn from experiences. Kolb (1984) suggests that reflection is the way in which we examine our experiences and draw lessons from them which is supported by Cornforth (2009) who describes the purpose of reflection to be to scr utinise an incident to see what, if anything, could be done differently after looking back and analysing what happened. I work within a small GP surgery in Lincolnshire. Jane and I had not had contact prior to her arrival at the placement but this had been arranged via the practice learning facilitator. I greeted Jane warmly and introduced myself. I gave Jane an induction pack to provide her with information regarding the surgery including expected fire alarm testing, emergency equipment and where she could eat. The use of induction and learning packs have been found to be an invaluable resource when used effectively for both learner and mentor (Moore, 2013). Using Egan’s (2002) SOLER model of communication skills, Jane and I had a discussion around ground rules, expectations of each other and the learning environment. SOLER is a model of non-verbal communication techniques that aids demonstration of active listening which is why I chose this model. It involves positioning and body language and advises you to learn forwards towards the other person, however I did not learn towards Jane as I fel t she may find this threatening. We continued by discussing Jane’s learning needs including meeting her learning outcomes and her previous life and work experience. Maslow’s (1987) theory of a hierarchy of human needs suggests that our physiological needs take highest priority followed by safety and the need for belongingness. I wanted to make Jane feel welcome and to encourage her to develop her skills, knowledge and attitude. The NMC (2008) standards for mentors involve eight domains and declare that for learning to be effective, students should spend at least forty percent of their placement time with their mentor. Furthermore, the NMC (2008b) identified the need for protected time for mentoring. Jane and I briefly discussed how we would allocate our time together before I introduced her to other members of the surgery team. A study by Newton, Billett and Ockerby (2009) identified that a supportive social and cultural arena that enables the student to become part of the clinical team is very important. I therefore felt that for Jane to feel welcome, she needed to know who everyone was and their role within the team. I understood that it was important to create a positive learning environment for Jane. In an early, landmark study, Fretwell (1980) identified that key components of the â€Å"ideal learning environment† as anti-hierarchy, teamwork, negotiation, communication and availability of traine d nurses for responding to students’ questions. Peer support is essential to this to allow Jane to spend time with other members of the health care team. Jane and I agreed a time to conduct the initial interview at this point. There are various definitions of what learning means, written throughout the ages by philosophers and educational psychologists. Gopee (2011) writes that learning is a process that leads to modification in behaviour or the acquisition of new abilities or responses, and which is additional to natural development, growth or maturation. A literature search revealed different learning styles and I recognised that it is important to be flexible in the different learning approaches I provide. As a teacher, I must understand that learning styles change depending on the task being taught and how the student responds to the learning experience. Most students have elements of more than one learning style present. It may be useful for students to think about their strongest and weakest style to enable the teacher to develop strategies to capitalise on strengths. Bloom (1956) talks about three domains of learning. Cognitive is about mental skills and knowledge and affective is about growth in feelings or emotional areas and attitudes. Psychomotor is about manual or physical skills. Honey and Mumford (1982) developed learning styles and they identified four different styles, or preferences. Activist, Theorist; Pragmatist and Reflector. These are the learning approaches that individuals naturally prefer and they developed a learning style questionnaire to enable people to analyze and evaluate their own particular learning styles. Prior to the initial interview, I had asked Jane’s to complete the Honey and Mumford learning style questionnaire. The initial interview took place early in the first week of placement in a private room with Jane, myself and my mentor. I closed the door and put my telephone over to â€Å"do not disturb† so that there would be no interruptions. The learning style questionnaire was reviewed and this had identified Jane as being an activist with reflective tendencies. Jane also agreed that she preferred to be â€Å"hands on† as identified by the psychomotor element of Bloom. For this reason, we agreed that Jane may learn more by practical sessions reinforced by using question and answer sessions. Jane was encouraged to approach clinical staff for advice in any areas that she felt she did not fully understand. It was identified following discussion that Jane did not have any specific learning difficulties or needs. We spent time looking through the continuous assessment of practice (CAP) document and the competency framework to identify the learning outcomes that Jane needed to meet and at what academic level she should be working towards. As Jane was a second year student, the learning outcomes related more to applying theory to practice and therefore I needed to devise teaching sessions towards that level. We focused on the action plan from her previous placement in order to develop an action plan for this placement taking into account her learning outcomes. Referring back to the NMC (2008b) guidelines on standards to support learning and assessment in practice, Jane and I agreed the time she would spend with me and with other health care professionals to broaden the learning opportunities of her placement. I devised a SMART action plan for Jane creating some learning objectives for her to meet by the interim interview (see appendix 1). This means that objectives should be Specific, Measureab le, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. A date was arranged for the interim interview mid placement. In order to fulfil my role as mentor to Jane, I understood that I would be acting as a role model as identified in the NMC (2008b) guidelines to support learning in practice. The mentor should not only be a role model for clinical skills but also as an organiser of care, a researcher and a teacher within their post (Gopee, 2011). The mentor must act professionally at all times. Donaldson and Carter’s (2005) report on an evaluation of the perceptions of undergraduate students on role modelling within the clinical settings, identified that students ranked highly the importance of good role models whose competence they could observe and practice. I was aware that I would need to demonstrate leadership skills throughout my journey as a mentor. Sullivan and Decker (2009) state that a leader is anyone who uses interpersonal skills to influence others to accomplish a goal. Mullins (2007) reaches a similar conclusion by referring to leadership as a relationship through which on person influences the behaviour or actions of others. Under the leadership domain of the NMC (2008b) guidance, it is indicated that mentors should demonstrate leadership skills for education within practice and academic settings. In order to do this, I understood that I would need to plan a structured teaching session but allow some flexibility in case of unpredicted events such as emergencies leading to deterioration of a patient’s condition. On reflection of Jane’s preferred learning style, she had indicated that she preferred a â€Å"hands on† approach however, I appreciated that this was not always possible particularly if it was a new experience. I contemplated that Jane may need to observe practical procedures initially before attempting the procedure herself and that different teaching methods may need to be used to support the theoretical component. I planned a series of learning experiences in order to meet the defined learning outcomes as planned during the initial interview and my intention was to prioritise my work in order to meet Jane’s learning requirements. My role as a mentor was to act as an advocate for Jane in order for her to access learning opportunities involving others, a role model, a teacher/facilitator, and a manager of change. Price and Price (2009) support the argument that mentors act as role models for enabling students to learn safe and effective practice. As a healthcare professional, I am accountable for delivering care competently (NMC, 2008a) but also for enabling learners to develop their clinical skills (NMC, 2008b). As a mentor, my accountability relates to the rules, policies, regulations and scope of practice that govern assessments (NMC, 2010). It also relates to the assessment of professional competence, to personal and professional responsibilities and to legislation. This may mean failing a student against some competencies within the CAP document, this could be because of various reasons leading to the student not progressing to the required standard. Work by Duffy (2003) identified that some mentors fail to fail a student despite being accountable. This is supported in a paper by Gainsbury (2010). There may be various reasons for this including pressure from the student, lateness or sickness and failure to make up missed hours. I understood that if I felt Jane was failing to meet the standard required, I would work withi n the guidelines of my professional body as I would remain accountable for passing a failing student and would therefore not be pressured into doing this. During my teaching sessions I remained aware of facilitating the use of evidence based practice (EBP), this is practice based on underpinning research and evidence, clinical knowledge and cost. Using EBP is a component in the NMC (2008b) competencies for mentors and its use supports effective care, clinical effectiveness and practice development and aims to improve the standards and quality of healthcare delivery. Example of EBP are clinical guidelines such as those produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), National Service Frameworks (NSF) and strategies such as the cancer strategy (National Health Service (NHS), 2014), and both local and national policies and pathways. The assessment process compromises of measuring the student’s progress and encompasses knowledge, skills and attitude. Assessment is performed to protect patient safety, competence and fitness to practice. During the assessment process it was important to consider the competency framework (Steinaker and Bell, 1979) which is commonly used in nurse education curricula and at what level I should expect Jane to be performing towards in her second year of training. The learning competencies are clearly identified in the CAP document and I would be assessing Jane against these competencies. Continuous assessment can be used to measure consistency, it allows for progression, improvement and development and permits assessment in different areas or scenarios. The criteria for assessment proclaimed by Quinn and Hughes (2007) is that assessment is valid, reliable, not discriminatory, practical and transparent. This process should allow for fairness of assessment of the individual on particular competencies. Factors that could affect assessment in the clinical environment making them unfair include interruptions, lack of resources such as equipment and suitability of placement (Gopee, 2011). The assessment process took place at agreed times and I attempted to create a climate that allowed Jane to perform to the best of her ability nevertheless considering the safety of the patient and I was prepared to intervene or provide prompts if necessary. Gopee (2011) believes that assessment of a student involves gathering information of the students ability to perform particular skills or competencies. Performance is measured against standards set by governing bodies. Following assessment, I provided Jane with feedback on her performance. I was mindful of remaining constructive rather than destructive, objective, clear, concise and specific about elements of the assessment. I remained aware that feedback needed to be a two way process to enable Jane to learn and improve and allow for time to discuss concerns and ask for clarification where needed. Wilkes, Joyce and Edmond (2011) believe that constructive feedback can inspire and encourage students and therefore enhance their understanding. Feedback helps learners to recognise weaknesses and identify areas for improvement and for the mentor to recognise learning, consolidation and linking theory to practice (British Journal of Hospital Medicine (BJHM) 2009). Hill (2007) supports the idea that feedback plays an important role in the learning cycle in the link between the theoretical and practical elements of competencies. During the interim interview, which took place midway through placement, Jane and I had a discussion around her development, achievement of learning outcomes, strengths and weaknesses. We revisited the action plan from the initial interview to establish whether these had been appropriate and achievable. Gopee (2011) states that mid-placement interview is an important component in the assessment of the students’ progress. Jane self-assessed and reflected on her progress. I undertook a formative assessment of Jane’s competence and skills and we discussed and agreed a further SMART action plan (see appendix 2) incorporating any further learning opportunities required. We completed the documentation required in Jane’s CAP document, supporting the NMC (2009) guidance on record keeping. Before ending the interview, we agreed a time and date for her final interview towards the end of her placement. I continued to provide learning opportunities either with myself or with other professionals in order to meet the competencies identified in Jane’s CAP document and in her SMART action plan. Relating back to Bloom’s (1956) domains of learning, this allowed for further development of skills (psychomotor), knowledge and understanding (cognitive) and attitude (affective) and attributed to an increase of confidence in skills that were performed frequently. Student number 478825Module number 92938

Laws, Crime and Punishment in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Ess

Laws, Crime and Punishment in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Great Expectations criticises the Victorian judicial and penal system. Through the novel, Charles Dickens displays his point of view of criminality and punishment. This is shown in his portraits of all pieces of such system: the lawyer, the clerk, the judge, the prison authorities and the convicts. In treating the theme of the Victorian system of punishment, Dickens shows his position against prisons, transportation and death penalty. The main character, a little child who has expectations of becoming a gentleman to be of the same social position of the girls he loves, passes from having no interest on criminality and its penalties to be very concerned on the issue. By means of other characters, for instance Mrs. Joe Gargery, Dickens tries to define the people’s common view about convicts, transportation and capital punishment. In portraying the character of the convict, Dickens sets out the case in hand of two people sentenced to transportation for forgery of banknotes and an alyses their psychology. By reading the novel, the reader becomes aware of the Victorian unfair justice regarding poor and illiterate people, but advantageous towards the rich and educated middle-class. The prison system in England may have had a significant effect on the life and writing of Charles Dickens due to his father’s imprisonment in Marshalsea Debtors’ Prison as a consequence of his debts. These kinds of prisons came to be workhouses for people who had lost all their belongings. In case debtors had family, it must accompany them in prison. This painful experience may have kept way in his mind for the rest of his life. His involvement with the legal world came when he was employed as a clerk at a lawyer’s office. His later interest in penology made him read many works related to this subject. For this reason, he incorporated both the treatment of convicts and capital punishment in many novels. Great Expectations is a harsh criticism on the British legal and penal System as well as on Victorian society, achieved after exploring his characters’ behaviour, since the laws were only unfair for those on the bottom rung of the social ladder. London was one of the greatest cities in the world in the 19th C. At this time huge amounts of money were invested in industry and buildings as trade with other countrie... ...ntered out with a haggard look of bravery, and a few nodded to the gallery and others went out chewing the fragments of herb they had taken from the sweet herbs lying about† (451-452). It is when Pip learns to feel beyond the mask of respectability that he sees the unfair justice that condemns people with good-hearts: â€Å"For now, my repugnance to him had all melted away, and in the hunted wounded shackled creature who held my hand in his, I only saw a man who meant to be my benefactor, and who had left affectionately, gratefully, and generously, towards me with great constancy through a series of years† (441). As a conclusion, Charles Dickens criticises both sorts of punishment, the prison system and transportation as well as the unfairness carried for the judicial systems when creating laws little favourable for the poor. At the same time, he points out the Victorian hypocrisy of the rich and the lack of culture of the poor regarding the world of criminality. Work Cited Barnes, John. â€Å"The Method of Narration.† Dickens’ Great Expectations, 23- 32. London: Macmillan, 1996. Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Ed. Janice Carlisle. 1861. London: Bedford, 2006.

Feminism and Language Essay

Among different disciplines of the society, feminist geography, feminist history and feminist literary criticism, collectively becomes the Feminist Theory. This theory had a long walk of time, starting from this movement till 90s; at its third extent of its evolution. The time of post war and the baby boomers, the 60s and 70s were in the extent of the second wave. From this stage it reaches the first wave of 19th and early 20th century from the very point of time, when this became collectively the movements of this evolution that includes women’s rights, gender difference and theories and philosophies, which were the three social factors; of politics, society and economic equality of men and women in return gave birth to a concept called Feminism (Maggie 278). One of the factors, society has a concern with feminism amongst many, about the Language. This movement has influenced the usage of language at large. Linguistics brunt their midnight oil, to work on the description of the language usage that reduces the assumption of the biological sex of human connection. The thrush for the neutral gender was clearly manifested on its agendas of gender-inclusive language, which involve both the sexes or the genders and of gender-neutral language that proposes, gender hardly have any role in the language, for which it becomes neutral regarding in language usage. It is further argued to be non sexist language or politically correct language. Through these analyses the paper is shaping its findings of the relation between Feminism and Language. The philosophy of language have had its hurdle to establish the point of existence, but the criticism that displayed the male bias in the language like English, another criticisms is that the philosophy is ill equipped for the use of the feminists paved a way to a wider arena where its been suggested not to lay off the philosophy from the language. A cognitive feminist concept stretches the idea to limits where the traditional philosophy can help understanding the issues important to feminists. In Feminism, there have been numerous reasons to prove it ill suited for meeting the feminist needs, but the only factor that remained the lowest common denominator is the presence of maximum Individual in the philosophy. Criticism regarding polarity of individualism has been done in length and breadth, but interestingly, detection of those criticisms are always variable for different areas of philosophy being under the spot light and the different concerns of the particular critic, and the due to lack of single judgement the issue remains pseudo (Hintikka & Hintikka 139; Hornsby 87 and Nye 323). It has long been for the philosophy, since the beginning to be tagged with the usage of men bias of English language. Thinking can be free flowing when the language muses with mother tongue. Because, apart from English, there are different families of languages, which have much complex linguistics and can be used more flexibly in the context of both men centric and feminist uses. Such is the status of mother tongue, which frees itself from the men bias of English language. Needless to say, this can include many more languages in the common criticisms of the point of existence of philosophy of language. This also frees the critics from the psychological debate of the women and men. Moreover, individualism dose not have any scope to appreciate the concept of Social, where the central issue; feminism itself is the brainchild of social or society. Thus, the approach empowers the presence of language in feminism to the social causes of politics and power relation. Feminism is concern with the study of people and the domination function on others. Here the feelings and ideas are conveyed through a media. In this act of communicating language plays the most important role of media. Thus, it communicates, manipulates and controls to make it vital to understand the work of power. It is still a longing desire for many feminists to have a philosophy of language that will comprehend the social communication, but as a matter of fact, as of now; the presence of Individualism has it to be employed (Hornsby 97). In a Feminist mind set, the interchagability of the sexes are more important concept than decent English. As per the dogma of the convention, it has been engraved on the generations of student to think ‘he’ in connection of male only. Precisely, this is wrong. But the same had been practiced as the concept at its maximum limit. In the same school of thought a feminist would never go for ‘he’ if it can be presented as he or she, and would never chooses the author, where the author or the authoress can be put on use. And here the turning-point of the matter, which establishes the other side of the feminists on language, where they hate such kinds of vocabularies like, actress and waitress. Rather insist here for the masculine use for women and men. Of course it appears to be exclusively masculine in cases like these for those who are just learning the language (Gelernter 2008). Unlike the second wave, where the gender usage had been in use as person specific, the third wave is moving the approach in a more social level. Previously it was about the usage of the gender to address the person, but here it is about the perception of the language usage and that influences a larger group or category of the mass. It deals with the different way that men and women speak. Like, men being direct and forceful, women being hesitant, polite and apologetic. It analyses the complex negotiation among the genders regarding gender specific context like public speaking or intimate conversation and by routine, what women and men should do that is the co-operativeness and competitiveness. This makes the language of the two genders clear leaving no room to assume that all women are powerless, all males are powerful, or that gender always makes a difference. This is how; this feminist linguistics has focused on the social forces too. Nevertheless, it is suggested that the linguistics feminism of language perception to be kept at bay. It is so, because the sexism becomes difficult to analyse or challenge as they are more locally oriented and content specific. As a result the second wave feminism needs to be merged with the third wave in order to address both the local and global issues (Mills 2008). Language is not all about what we speak, it is about the writing too. By the verge of the second wave, the western society already produced some specific writing skills, which are inclined to feminism. It was a separate category of the scholarly interest. All the underrepresented women work in the history had to gain specific positions in the categories of history or writings. Various presses started taking effort to make the printings of the numerous works, as it was discover quite lately that the women were constantly writing (Blain 1231). This has been further ignited with the growing interest since 1970 in women writing as ‘powerful’. Since then many publishing houses responded in the women works like the long length of Novels and written Biographies. With this scrutiny, one editor reacted that most of the women work have been neglected from citing in most of the books available. Though now the picture is almost stable in this respect. Thus writing as another medium of communication has proved to be equally important when the expressions in the context are about women and men. This media is more typical as this is a kind of media where the data can be stored for future references. Thus, it is more permanent by character. Lastly, the philosophy remains important as that is the tool of the communication, which generates the thoughts to express in a language where the form may vary from what we speak and what we right, though it can be mirrored as the fountain head of the total concept takes birth in the womb of thought. So, after a handsome amount of conversations it has become quite clear that the Feminism as per the feminist theory is concerned, it is a social issue and includes many thing and aspects of society and the human life as a whole, but intends for the female race. It is not about being superior or inferior, good or bad, right or wrong. It is about being rational and be equal with both the genders. It is movement of social structure, where the politics, economic status of the social lot and the power makes the conglomeritic platform to deliver and establish the orders of the gender equality. And to support this entire process, Language has eventually become a part of Feminism; strong enough to control the chemistry of thought process. Bibliography Blain, Virginia. ; Clements, Patricia. ; Grundy, Isobel. (1990). The feminist companion to literature in English: women writers from the Middle Ages to the present. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990. Cambridge Companion to Feminism in Philosophy. Fricker, M. and Hornsby, J. , (eds. ) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 2000. Gelernter, David. â€Å"Feminism and the English Language. † American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research 4 Nov. 2008 . Humm, Maggie. The dictionary of feminist theory. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1990. Hintikka, M. B. and Hintikka, J. â€Å"How Can Language Be Sexist? † in Discovering Reality. Harding, S. and Hintikka, M. B. (eds. ) Dordrecht: D. Reidel: 1983. Hornsby, J. â€Å"Feminism in Philosophy of Language: Communicative Speech Acts†. in The Mills, Sara. â€Å"Third Wave Feminist Linguistics and the Analysis of Sexism. † School of Cultural Studies, Sheffield Hallam University 4 Nov. 2008 . Nye, A. â€Å"The Voice of the Serpent: French Feminism and Philosophy of Language†. in Women, Knowledge and Reality: Explorations in Feminist Philosophy. Garry, A. and Pearsall, M. (eds. ), NY and London: Routledge: 1996.

Bush Tax Cuts

There are several different philosophies on this issue, but I am in the camp of giving the template the economy or simply have more money to spend on things that they want. Consumer spending is good especially since the US was inn recession. Yes, based on supply-side economics. The idea is to deregulate government and offer tax cuts and corporate tax reductions with the intent of improving production and economic growth. In 2001, I believe that a tax cut was good way to stimulate the economy and to get us out of the recession.I don't think anyone could have foreseen the war and this caused the surplus to evaporate in conjunction with the reduction of revenue from the tax cuts. Does it matter that the benefits flow disproportionately to the highest income earners? No, the wealthy are already paying disproportionately more than the middle and lower class in taxes. They are also the ones that are investing in new business, helping to reduce unemployment that in turn helps to stimulate t he economy. I think there has to be a balance.I do understand that the deficit could be greatly reduced if the taxes for the wealthy were increased back to the Clinton era. * Do different voters have fundamentally different interest here? Yes, democrats for the most part believe in more government involvement- Geiger taxes and the republicans believe in lower taxes so that there is more money that can be used to stimulate the economy by small businesses and increased consumption. 3. Did the 2001-2003 tax cuts work and in what way? * For a very short time consumer spending increased (in the quarter following the rebate).In 2002 the US started experiencing a deficit and it has increased every year since the tax cut. According to Exhibit 7 in the reading, the Real GAP growth rate (percent), increased every year from 2001 until 2004. It is hard to say what would have happened without the tax cut because we entered a war and the amount of pending on defense increased as well as an increa se in unemployment. 4. What options were available to Obama with respect to fiscal policy when he took office? * He had the option to increase government spending by asking for another stimulus through the Economy Recovery Plan.He hoped this would create or save 2. 5 million Jobs over two years. His plan also involved making all the government building more energy-efficient. This would reduce spending. The purpose of this stimulus was also to increase Jobs through investing in new highway infrastructure. And most importantly, the economic recovery plan was to modernize the health care yester and would save billions of dollars through electronic medical records. Or, he could have chosen not to have increase government spending which in turn increased our deficit even more.