Causes of the Mexican-American War

Reasons for the Mexican-American War The causes of the Mexican-American War can to a great extent be followed back to Texas winning its freedom from Mexico in 1836. Following his thrashing at the Battle of San Jacinto (4/21/1836), Mexican General Antonio Lã ³pez de Santa Anna was caught and compelled to perceive the sway of the Republic of Texas in return for his opportunity. The Mexican government, in any case, would not respect Santa Anna’s understanding, expressing that he was not approved to make such an arrangement and, that it despite everything looked at Texas as a territory in defiance. Any contemplations the Mexican government had of recouping the domain rapidly were killed when the new Republic of Texas got strategic acknowledgment from the United States, Great Britain, and France. Statehood During the following nine years, numerous Texans straightforwardly preferred addition by the United States, be that as it may, Washington dismissed the issue. Numerous in the North were worried about adding another â€Å"slave† state to the Union, while others were worried about inciting a contention with Mexico. In 1844, Democrat James K. Polk was chosen for the administration on an ace addition stage. Acting rapidly, his forerunner, John Tyler, started statehood procedures in Congress before Polk got down to business. Texas authoritatively joined the Union on December 29, 1845. Because of this activity, Mexico compromised war yet was convinced against it by the British and French. Pressures Rise As addition was bantered in Washington in 1845, discussion raised over the area of the southern fringe of Texas. The Republic of Texas expressed that fringe was arranged at the Rio Grande as set out by the Treaties of Velasco which had finished the Texas Revolution. Mexico contended that the stream specified in the reports was the Nueces which was found roughly 150 miles further north. At the point when Polk freely bolstered the Texan position, the Mexicans started collecting men and sent soldiers over the Rio Grande into the contested territory.â Responding, Polk guided Brigadier General Zachary Taylor to take a power south to authorize the Rio Grande as the fringe. In mid-1845, he set up a base for his Army of Occupation at Corpus Christi close to the mouth of the Nueces. With an end goal to diminish pressures, Polk dispatched John Slidell as clergyman emissary to Mexico in November 1845 with requests to open talks in regards to the United States buying land from the Mexicans. In particular, Slidell was to present to $30 million in return for finding the fringe at the Rio Grande just as the regions of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico and Alta California. Slidell was likewise approved to excuse the $3 million in harms owed to US residents from the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821). This offer was declined by the Mexican government which because of inward insecurity and open weight was reluctant to arrange. The circumstance was additionally excited when a gathering drove by noted adventurer Captain John C. Frã ©mont showed up in northern California and started upsetting American pilgrims in the district against the Mexican government.â  â   Thornton Affair War In March 1846, Taylor got orders from Polk to move south into the contested domain and set up a situation along the Rio Grande. This was provoked by new Mexican President Mariano Paredes announcing in his debut address that he expected to maintain Mexican regional trustworthiness to the extent the Sabine River, including the entirety of Texas. Arriving at the stream inverse Matamoros on March 28, Taylor coordinated Captain Joseph K. Mansfield to fabricate an earthen star fortification, named Fort Texas, on the north bank. On April 24, General Mariano Arista showed up in Matamoros with around 5,000 men.â â The next night, while driving 70 US Dragoons to examine a hacienda in the contested region between the streams, Captain Seth Thornton unearthed a power of 2,000 Mexican warriors. A furious firefight resulted and 16 of Thornton’s men were murdered before the rest of compelled to give up. On May 11, 1846, Polk, refering to the Thornton Affair requested that Congress announce war on Mexico. Following two days of discussion, Congress decided in favor of war-not realizing that the contention had just raised.

A Lesson Before Dying essays

A Lesson Before Dying articles All through the span of the book, the principle character persevered through various difficulties and issues. The fundamental characters difficulties and clashes experienced brought about an assortment of results. In the novel A Lesson before Dying Grant the primary character of the novel, Grant is the child of stick cutters on a Louisiana estate. At the point when his folks moved to California abandoning Grant, Grant's auntie assumed liability for his childhood. Throughout the following not many years, he functioned as the Pichots' task kid. He got wood in the winter and blossoms in the spring. He purchased nourishment for their larders. He loathed his position, however it was the just a single accessible to him. At the point when he was mature enough, he left the manor to go to school. After showing up in Bayonne, he found that he was as yet a nigger according to the white individuals. Award frequently reprimands his general public. He sharply detests being dealt with like a sub-pa r, and he can't remain to think about Jefferson's uncalled for detainment. For the vast majority of the novel, notwithstanding, he never appears to take care of these things. This is a serious issue that Grant faces where he bottles out of frustration and misery and fails to address the circumstance. He yearns to flee, basically recognizing that society will never show signs of change from the bigotry and brutality he experiences from an everyday premise. Award unequivocally accepts that nobody can change society without being pulverized all the while. Awards disposition towards society and life upsets his potential for positive change. His powerlessness in supporting society and his locale is additionally a difficult Grant faces. Indeed, even Jefferson's preliminary can't adjust Grant's cynical disposition. Award sees the insidiousness of a framework intended to maintain the predominance of one race over another. He sees the appointed authority and jury baseless rebuffing Jefferson . Award says that the appointed authority was white, the attorneys were white, and each individual from the jury was white too. Award proceeds to r... <! A Lesson Before Dying articles Envision living under the thumb of a legitimate framework that neglected to give correspondence of rights, in view of the shade of ones skin. This was particularly valid for blacks living in the South during the mid twentieth century. With minimal government oversight and even less worry for the social liberties of minorities, the account of Jefferson in Earnest Gaines showstopper A Lesson Before Dying, precisely delineates a dark keeps an eye on battle for a reasonable legitimate framework. Be that as it may, to comprehend the equity of today, one should initially inspect the shameful acts of the past. The historical backdrop of supposed Jim Crow laws, American legitimate reformers, and change law give us an understanding into the history and accomplishments of the individuals who devoted their lifes work to the fulfillment of a simply lawful procedure. So than, who was Jim Crow in any case? Jim Crow was a conventional name for any white man in dark cosmetics, copying dark culture or music. In any case, when a great many people consider Jim Crow they consider laws, which barred blacks from open vehicle and offices, juries, occupations, and neighborhoods. Gaines viably depicts this division all through the novel with piercing instances of this kind of separation despite the fact that the section of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution had conceded blacks indistinguishable legitimate securities from whites. Be that as it may, after 1877, and the appointment of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, southern and Border States started confining the freedoms of blacks. Shockingly for blacks, the Supreme Court subverted the Constitutional securities of blacks with the notorious Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case, which legitimized Jim Crow laws and the Jim Crow lifestyle. In 1890, Louisiana passed the Discrete Car Law, which indicated to help traveler comfort by making equivalent yet independent vehicles for blacks and whites. This was a stratagem. No open lodging, including railroad travel, gave blacks equivalent faciliti... <! An exercise before kicking the bucket expositions A Lesson Before Dying is a novel, which in detail negates, prejudice and in-equity ness all through the novel. Ernest J. Gainer the writer of the novel gives the peruser featured issues that were un-gratifyingly supporter inside the novel. Which Jeffersons Convection, there is additionally the issue which must do with the Fegregaation between the whites and the blacks inside this novel, and afterward there is Paul who sends message to perusers, that there is a good omen for individuals to defeat bigotry in the novel, A Lesson Before Dying. A Lesson Before Dying is a novel about, bigotry and in-equity ness, Ernest J. Ganes causes the peruser to get this, by the result and the continuous of Jeffersons preliminary s decision, a decision of a dark man who has, said to have killed 2 dark men Twelve white men state a dark man must bite the dust, and another white man sets the date and time without talking with one dark individual A bonehead does what others advise him to do There is a name on Jefferson of been a HOG or something that comes to requests, the legal counselor expresses that Jefferson is not exactly a person. He remarks on his absence of instruction, the state of his skull, his creature impulses and his African starting point. On the off chance that Grant Wiggins an informed individual mind... <! A Lesson Before Dying expositions A Lesson Before Dying happens in a little Louisiana Cajun people group in the late 1940s. In the novel, Jefferson, a youthful dark man, is an accidental gathering to an alcohol store shoot out in which three men are slaughtered; being the main survivor, he is sentenced for a homicide and condemned to death. Jeffersons character and physical appearance in the novel gives not just a relationship to the court and his cell, yet additionally associated with the land setting of the In the underlying setting of the novel, Jefferson sits in a court situated in rustic Louisiana, which is loaded up with outrage , pressure, disengagement, and quietness from the individuals in the room. This setting of the book underpins Jeffersons character in section 9 when Jeffersons character is presented. Jeffersons cell could be viewed as the subsequent setting or Jeffersons setting in the book. Jeffersons relationship to the court (beginning setting) underpins Jeffersons character in the jail. He is detached simply like in the court. There was a vacant cell among Jefferson and the remainder of the detainees (Gaines 71). Jeffersons cell was not just secluded like a court in country Louisiana, yet peaceful. Jeffersons hushed up . . . He didnt answer (71). Because of Jeffersons disconnection and quietness, he has constructed outrage inside. A displeasure which had been developing since the court conviction. Nothing dont matter,he stated, gazing toward the The main setting of the novel is like Jeffersons cell setting. The three settings: the court , area of the town, and jail all have similitudes to Jeffersons character characteristics. Topic: Jeffersons character speaks to race the best. The open door for equivalent portrayal for the African Americans in the book is appeared through Jefferson. There is a steady compariso... <! A Lesson Before Dying expositions In A Lesson Before Dying, Grant Wiggins, an African American teacher, winds up being conflicted between ...two spirits, two contemplations, two unreconciled strivings... while living in the South. Award is an exceptionally taught individual, yet is frequently baffled by the manner in which he is treated by white individuals all through his town. While talking with a noticeable white individual around, he nearly feels he needs to impair his jargon just to fit in (48). In a network that is controlled and run solely by white individuals, Grant is relied upon to act in a specific way since he is accepted to be on a lower level as a result of his skin shading. This conviction that he is a lower being a direct result of his skin shading, as DuBois brings up, causes a contention among oneself; Grant realizes hes taught and exceptionally brilliant, he is very much aware of his circumstance, yet is uncertain about himself on the grounds that others dont consistently consider him to be a knowl edgeable African American who is attempting to improve the network, but instead a Black individual, and they treat him like a lower being on the grounds that hes dark rather than with the regard that he merits. All through A Lesson Before Dying, Grant the two rejects and acknowledges having a twofold cognizance. He manages the circumstance by working intimately with a death row detainee named Jefferson. Through Jefferson, Grant endeavors to determine the battle inside himself by helping Jefferson take care of himself despite the fact that white individuals all through the network venture to put down wagers on Jefferson about whether damnation really be capable demonstrate hes not a creature (229). Award makes some troublesome memories seeing himself the manner in which he truly is instead of how other townspeople (primarily white individuals) think he is, so when Jefferson does in the end take care of himself, Grant comprehends that the American white cognizant he feels is off base, and that you are what you accept... <! A Lesson Before Dying papers A Lesson before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines is a moving, ground-breaking novel about a dark individual put waiting for capital punishment for a wrongdoing he didn't submit. Generally speaking, I thought the book was motivating and elegantly composed, yet had its downsides. The tale is set in the 1940's, the place Jefferson and two of his buddies, loot a nearby store. Everyone was slaughtered with the exception of Jefferson, the main man who didn't shoot a solitary shot. He is in this way put in prison for no other explanation with the exception of being in an unlucky spot. He is then condemned to death by the hot seat. His caring auntie, Miss Emma, was mortified when the legal hearer considered Jefferson a hoard out in the open. She employs Grant Wiggins, an informed teacher to help make Jefferson a man, and stroll to the seat. Award and Jefferson cooperate and following some minor detachment

Reading For Every Type of Self-Care

Reading For Every Type of Self-Care Let’s get something out of the way before I start:   I think the concept of “self-care” has been hopelessly diluted from its original meaning. What was once a term used to describe the necessity of activists taking the time to recharge and refocus before returning to the fray has become a way for lifestyle blogs to sell $65 candles. I think for those of us that suffer from mental illness, or do a lot of political thinking and organizing, on top of full-time jobs or kids or other responsibilities, self-care can be an incredibly important tool and can even feel revolutionary. I advocate for it. Actually, I advocate for taking care of oneself all the timeâ€"I just don’t believe it’s always a feminist act. With that disclaimer, I want to further position this article by saying that it has been an unbelievably horrible couple of weeks. I don’t need to rehash current events here. And it would be downright ridiculous to equate my own stressâ€"from my Manhattan apartment, scrolling through Twitterâ€"with the suffering of those more directly affected by what is happening in our country. I think there is a balance to be struck between Tina Fey’s cringeworthy edict to hole up and eat sheet cake and wearing yourself thin trying to address every single repulsive event immediately. I think most of us at Book Riot would consider reading a kind of ultimate self-care, because it has the power to both educate and comfort, to be a quiet pastime with the power to amplify any number of voices. I think when we feel lost, or stagnant, sometimes the action that feels the most manageable is to pick up a book. In that spirit, I’ve put together some books ranging from “generally soothing” to “re-invigorating” that I’ll most likely be turning to in the coming weeks. If you’re seeking, to borrow another book’s phrase, some chicken soup for the soul, I would highly recommend Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things , a compilation of her Dear Sugar advice columns. I’m the kind of person who has always enjoyed reading advice columns, even when (especially when?) the query has nothing to do with my own personal problems. It makes me feel a little better about the world to know that people are so willing to make themselves vulnerable to strangers. Strayed’s advice is always lovingly and thoughtfully given, without shying away from the complexity of the questions she’s asked. (I also recommend the Dear Sugar podcast, which has the ambience of a late-night radio show playing Josh Groban songs. It helps me sleep.) For a more personal narrative, Zadie Smith’s book of essays Changing My Mind is the best (shocker: Hannah recommends a Zadie Smith book!). Her thoughts on other books, movies, and her own life feel like you’re having a deep conversation with your smartest friend over coffee. Her essay about Katharine Hepburn single-handedly birthed my obsession with Hepburn, whose movies are among my favorites of all time. This book might gently nudge you towards looking more critically at the media you consume, but for me, it always prompts me to meditate on the good things. Moving along. I’ve been trying to read more authors of color, especially women, and now is a good time for it: there are brilliant new novels by WoC popping up everywhere. Earlier this month, I devoured The Mothers by Brit Bennett in about two days, which was funny and touching, managing somehow to be both atmospheric and matter-of-fact. I’m also currently in the middle of Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo, which tells the story of a Nigerian woman whose husband takes a second wife after she fails to conceive. Stay With Me reads like the best, most enduring epic, and all day I think about when I’ll be able to get home and keep reading. I’m including both of these books because I think that when turning to books for self-care, an easy way to give that action a little bit more of an impact is to support the work of authors of color and stories about people of color. It helps to decenter the notion that these books are somehow special-interest. Finally, if you are ready to read something that will rile you up, an excellent choice would be James Baldwin’s I Am Not Your Negro. This book is challenging, devastating, and overall a brilliant collection of Baldwins writings. There’s also Angela Davis’s classic text Women, Race, and Class, which tends to hold up despite its slight dated-ness. And for good measure, I’d also add in Susan Sontag’s exhaustive discussion of empathy in Regarding the Pain of Others, which is specifically about art and photography but I think remains unbelievably relevant in the age of social media. And, when it comes out, I have no doubt Ta-Nehisi Coates’ We Were Eight Years in Power could serve as the crown jewel of this section. Reading doesn’t have to be passive, and, in my opinion, in hard times it can only help.

What Is Expository Writing

Expository writing is used to convey factual information (as opposed to creative writing, such as fiction). It is the language of learning and understanding the world around us. If youve ever read an encyclopedia  entry, a how-to article on a website, or a chapter in a textbook, then youve encountered examples of  expository writing. Key Takeaways: Expository Writing Just the facts, Mam: Expository writing is informational, not creative writing.Anytime you write to describe or explain, you use expository writing.Use a logical flow when planning an expository essay, report, or article: introduction, body text, and conclusion.Its often easier to write the body of your article first, before composing the introduction or conclusion. Expository writing is everywhere in everyday life, not just academic settings, as its present anytime theres information to be conveyed. It can take form in an academic paper, an article for a newspaper, a report for a business, or even book-length nonfiction. It explains, informs, and describes. Types of Expository Writing In  composition studies, expository writing (also called exposition) is one of the four traditional  modes of discourse. It may include elements of  narration,  description, and  argumentation. Unlike creative or  persuasive writing, which can appeal to emotions and use anecdotes, expository  writings primary  purpose  is to deliver information about an issue, subject, method, or idea using facts. Exposition may take one of several forms: Descriptive/definition:  In this style of writing, topics are defined by characteristics, traits, and examples. An encyclopedia entry is a kind of descriptive essay.  Process/sequential:  This essay outlines a series of steps needed in order to complete a task or produce something. A recipe at the end of an article in a food magazine is one example.Comparative/contrast:  This kind of exposition is used to demonstrate how two or more subjects are the same and different. An article that explains the difference between owning and renting a home and the benefits and drawbacks of each is one such an example.Cause/effect:  This kind of essay describes how one step leads to a result. An example is a personal blog chronicling a workout regimen and documenting the results over time.Problem/solution: This type of essay presents a problem and possible solutions, backed by data and facts, not just opinion.Classification: A classification essay breaks down a broad topic into categories or groupings. Tips for Expository Writing As you write, keep in mind some of these tips for creating an effective expository essay: Start where you know the information best. You dont have to write your introduction first. In fact, it might be easier to wait until the end for that. If you dont like the look of a blank page, move over the slugs from your outline for the main body paragraphs and write the topic sentences for each. Then start putting in your information according to each paragraphs topic. Be clear and concise.  Readers have a limited attention span. Make your case succinctly in language that the average reader can understand.   Stick to the facts.  Although an exposition can be persuasive, it should not be based on opinion only. Support your case with facts, data, and reputable sources that can be documented and verified. Consider voice and tone.  How you address the reader depends on the kind of essay youre writing. An essay written in the first person is fine for a personal travel essay but is inappropriate if youre a business reporter describing a patent lawsuit. Think about your audience before you begin writing. Planning Your Essay Brainstorm: Jot down ideas on a blank piece of paper. Connect them with arrows and lines, or just make lists. Rigor doesnt matter at this stage. Bad ideas dont matter at this stage. Just write down ideas, and the engine in your head will lead you to a good one.When youve got that idea, then repeat the brainstorming exercise with ideas that you want to pursue on that topic and information you could put in. From this list, youll start to see a path emerge for your research or narrative to follow.Compose your thesis: When your ideas coalesce into a sentence in which you can summarize the topic youre writing about, youre ready to compose your thesis sentence. Write down in one sentence the main idea that youll explore in your paper.Examine your thesis: Is it clear? Does it contain opinion? If so, revise that out. For this type of essay, you stick to the facts and evidence. This isnt an editorial. Is the thesis scope manageable? You dont want your topic too narrow or too broad to be cover ed in the amount of space you have for your paper. If its not a manageable topic, refine it. Dont be dismayed if you have to come back and tweak it if your research finds that your initial idea was off-kilter. Its all just part of the process of focusing the material.Outline: It may seem inconsequential, but making even a quick outline can save you time by organizing your areas of pursuit and narrowing them down. When you see your topics in an organized list, you may be able to discard off-topic threads before you research them—or as youre researching them and you find they just dont work.Research: Find your data and sources to back up the areas you want to pursue to support your thesis statement. Look for sources written by experts, including organizations, and watch for bias. Possible sources include statistics, definitions, charts and graphs, and expert quotes and anecdotes. Compile descriptive details and comparisons to make your topic clear to your reader, when applicabl e. What Is an Expository Essay? An expository essay has three basic parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Each is crucial to writing a clear article or effective argument. The introduction: The first paragraph is where youll lay the foundation for your essay and give the reader an overview of your thesis. Use your opening sentence to get the readers attention, and then follow up with a few sentences that give your reader some context for the information youre about to cover. The body:  At a minimum, include three to five paragraphs in the body of your expository essay. The body could be considerably longer, depending on your topic and audience. Each paragraph begins with a topic sentence where you state your case or objective. Each topic sentence supports your overall thesis statement. Then, each paragraph includes several sentences that expand on the information and/or support the topic sentence. Finally, a concluding sentence offers a transition to the following paragraph in the essay. The conclusion:  The final section of your expository essay should give the reader a concise overview of your thesis. The intent is not merely to summarize  your argument but to use it as a means of proposing further action, offering a solution, or posing new questions to explore.  Dont cover new material related to your thesis, though. This is where you wrap it all up. Expository Examples An expository article or report about a lake, for example, could discuss its ecosystem: the plants and animals that depend on it along with its climate. It could describe physical details about its size, depth, amount of rainfall each year, and the number of tourists it receives annually. Information on when it was formed, its best fishing spots, or its water quality could be included, depending on the audience for the piece. An expository piece could be in third person or second person. Second-person examples could include, for example, how to test lake water for pollutants or how to kill invasive species. Expository writing is useful and informative. In contrast, someone writing a creative nonfiction article about a lake might relate the place to a defining moment in his or her life, penning the piece in first person. It could be filled with emotion, opinion, sensory details, and even include dialogue and flashbacks. Its a much more evocative, personal type of writing than an expository piece, even though theyre both nonfiction styles.

The Scarlet Letter Characters Description and Analysis

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel about Puritan Boston, then known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony, tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman who has given birth to a child out of wedlock—a grave sin in the deeply religious community. The balance of the narrative takes place in the seven years following the public outcry over her crime and focuses mainly on her relationship with the revered town minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, and the newly-arrived physician, Roger Chillingworth. Over the course of the novel, these characters’ relationships with each other and with the townspeople undergo major changes, resulting in the revelation of all they had at one point wished to keep hidden. Hester Prynne Prynne is the novel’s protagonist who, as the transgressor in the community, is forced to wear the eponymous totem. As the book begins with Prynne having already committed her crime, there is no way to discern her character before becoming the town pariah, but following this change in relations, she settles into an independent and virtuous life in a cottage on the edge of town. She dedicates herself to needle-pointing, and begins to produce work of remarkable quality. This, and her charitable efforts around the town, earn her back, somewhat, into the good graces of the townspeople, and some of them start thinking of the â€Å"A† as standing for â€Å"able.† (Interestingly, this is the only time, other than an off-hand joke made to Pearl, her daughter, that the letter is given a concrete meaning). Despite her good deeds, the townspeople begin to worry about Pearl’s rambunctious behavior, even going so far as to suggest that the girl be taken away from her mother. When Prynne catches wind of this, she appeals directly to the governor, showing how protective she is of her daughter. Additionally, this moment highlights Prynne’s refusal to apologize for her crime (as the town sees it), arguing, straight at Dimmesdale, that it isn’t a crime for a woman to follow her heart. She later expresses her independence again, when she decides to reveal to Dimmesdale that Chillingworth is her husband from England, and to Chillingworth that Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father. When these revelations have played out, Prynne decides that she wants not only to move back to Europe, but to do so with Dimmesdale, ridding herself of Chillingworth. Even when the minister dies, she leaves Boston nonetheless, striking out on her own back in the Old World. Curiously, she later decides to return to the New World, and even start once more wearing the scarlet letter, but there is little to suggest that at that point she is doing so out of shame; rather, she seems to do so out of reverence for humility and earnestness. Arthur Dimmesdale Dimmesdale is the young and highly respected Puritan minister in the colony. He is known and adored by all of the deeply religious community, but keeps hidden from them until the very end of the novel that he is Pearl’s father. As a result, he feels racked with guilt, so much so that his health begins to deteriorate. When this happens, it is suggested that he take up residence with Roger Chillingworth, the newly arrived physician. At first the pair—neither of whom knows of the other’s relationship with Prynne—get along well, but the minister starts to withdraw when the physician begins asking him about his obvious mental anguish. This inner turmoil leads him one night to wander to the scaffold in the town square, where he confronts the fact that he cannot bring himself to publicize his transgressions. This is in direct contrast to Prynne, who was forced to make this fact public in the most humiliating of ways. This is also antithetical to his very powerful public persona, in that he speaks before an audience every week, and is well known to all of them. Additionally, though he does, in fact, wear a mark on his chest of personal shame, mirroring Prynne’s, it is only made public following his death, whereas Prynne’s mark was very public during her life. At the end he does acknowledge the affair somewhat publicly and as something other than utterly sinful. And he does do right by Prynne when she visits the governor to argue that Pearl shouldn’t be taken away from her and he speaks up on her behalf. For the most part, though, Dimmesdale represents the interior, personal guilt felt by those who transgress laws and norms, as opposed to Prynne, who must bear the public, societal guilt. Roger Chillingworth Chillingworth is a new arrival in the colony and is not noticed by the other townspeople when he enters the town square during Prynne’s public shaming. Prynne, however, does notice him, because he is her presumed-dead husband from England. He is much older than Prynne, and sent her off ahead of him to the New World, whereupon she had an affair with Dimmesdale. They first reconnect when Prynne is in jail, after the shaming, because Chillingworth is a physician, a fact that he uses to gain access to her cell. While there, they discuss their marriage, and both acknowledge their own shortcomings. Chillingworth—as his name implies—is not usually so emotionally warm, though. Upon learning of Prynne’s infidelity, he vows to discover and exact revenge on the man who usurped him. The irony of this is, of course, that he winds up living with Dimmesdale, but has no knowledge of the minister’s relationship with his wife. Given his educated pedigree, Chillingworth begins to suspect that Dimmesdale has a guilty conscience, but he nonetheless struggles to figure out why. In fact, even when he sees the mark on Dimmesdale’s chest, he does not put it all together. This is an interesting moment, as the narrator compares Chillingworth to the Devil, further highlighting his lack of ability to connect with other people. Despite, his desire for revenge, this goal ultimately eludes him, as Dimmesdale reveals his secret to the entire community and then promptly dies (and in Prynne’s arms no less). He, too, dies shortly thereafter, but does leave a substantial inheritance to Pearl. Pearl Pearl is the product of, and as such symbolizes, Prynne and Dimmesdale’s affair. She is born just before the book starts, and grows to seven years old by the books completion. Due to her mother’s exclusion from the rest of the community, she grows up ostracized as well, with no playmates or companions other than her mother. As a result, she becomes unruly and troublesome—a fact that, despite the mother and daughter’s isolation from the town, draws the attention of many local women who attempt to have her taken away from her mother. Prynne, however, is fiercely protective of her daughter, and prevents this from happening. Despite the pair’s closeness, Pearl never learns the meaning of the scarlet letter or the identity of her father. Additionally, even though Chillingworth leaves her a sizable inheritance, it is never stated that she learns of his and her mother’s marriage.

The African American Achievement Gap Free Essays

The African American Achievement Gap: Why is it There and What Can be Done Are Black Americans Dumber than White Americans? Can it unequivocally be stated that European Americans hold more intelligence then African Americans? Are African Americans genetically wired to have a lesser mental capacity then European Americans? For a long time this was the explanation to a burning problem. African Americans score lower than White Americans on vocabulary, reading, and mathematics tests, as well as on tests that claim to measure scholastic aptitude and intelligence. This gap appears before children enter kindergarten and it persists into adulthood. We will write a custom essay sample on The African American Achievement Gap: or any similar topic only for you Order Now The typical American black still scores below 75 percent of American whites on most standardized tests. On some tests the typical American black scores below more than 85 percent of whites. † (CHRISTOPHER, JENCKS) This test score gap is not an inevitable fact of nature. It is true that the gap shrinks only a little when black and white children attend the same schools. It is also true that the gap shrinks only a little when black and white families have the same amount of schooling, the same income, and the same wealth. However, after extensive research, no one has found any evidence saying that blacks have less intellectual ability than whites. So what causes this gap in test scores? Some attribute it to the culture of African Americans. They say that African Americans are uninterested in learning and don’t seek to pursue academic excellence. Some attribute the gap to testing conditions. Some attribute it to concepts such as â€Å"White Guilt† and â€Å"Stereotype Threat. †(Will be explained later) I however cannot attribute it to any one thing. This whole issue cannot be explained by one concept. Rather then trying to describe the achievement gap with one concept, I attribute it to a combination of many. The reason for the perceived gap in test scores is an intricate combination of things such as Stereotype threat, White Guilt, and Culture. On this issue, Thomas Sowell takes the position that this gap has nothing to do with racism or race. Sowell says, â€Å"For much of the first half of the 20th century, these differences were attributed to race-that is, to an assumption that blacks just did not have it in their genes to do as well as white people. The tide began to turn in the second half of the 20th Century, when the assumption developed that black-white differences were due to racism on the part of whites. † (Sowell, Thomas) However, his research showed something different. With his study at Harvard, he noticed that most of the black alumni were either from â€Å"the West Indies or Africa, or were the children of West Indian or African immigrants. These people are the same race as American blacks, who greatly outnumber either or both. † (Sowell, Thomas) This completely dispels the idea of race being a factor. So what does cause the gap? Sowell believes Culture does. His main argument is that the culture from so-called â€Å"rednecks† from Europe caused this uneducated culture seen in blacks. He says, â€Å"The culture of the people who were called â€Å"rednecks† and â€Å"crackers† before they ever got on the boats to cross the Atlantic was a culture that produce far lower levels of intellectual and economic achievement, as well as high levels of violence and sexual promiscuity. † (Sowell, Thomas) Now the most important points raised are that only a third of whites lived in this culture while 90% of blacks live in it. Of course culture fades away eventually but, it has very slow within the black community; especially in the worst black ghettos in the country. This is a culture of counter productivity and self-destruction. Sowell says all blacks are regarded this way. However, the question has to be asked; can this really be applied to all blacks? It really can’t. Culture can be a valid explanation for this particular group of black people but it does not prove anything for all blacks. Not all blacks are from the ghetto. Some actually come from prominent, stable homes. Some actually come from the same environment as successful whites and Langston Hughes takes a look at some of these people. Hughes also takes the view of culture but he examines it from the view of blacks that are not stuck in the ghetto but have stable backgrounds. Hughes takes the view that blacks are actually hindering themselves. He says that there is a huge obstacle standing in the way of every black person. He actually makes a reference about artist but it can be viewed as any black person. He says the obstacle is, â€Å"this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible. † (Hughes, Langston) His example is a poet. This poet subconsciously wants to be white because he feels it will make him a better poet. This poet comes from a strong background in the middle class. According to Hughes, they attend church; the father has a steady job; the mother works on occasion; and the children attend mixed schools. However, the problem comes with how the parents treat their children. The mother says things like, â€Å"Don’t be like niggers† when the children are bad. In turn the father says things like, â€Å"Look how well a white man does things. † So in this home and many others, black is not praised or celebrated it is taught to be ashamed of. They are taught to want to be white. It is staggering what blacks do to themselves because of this. Fist Hughes says the more predominant don’t support their own people. His example is that, A â€Å"Negro clubwoman in Philadelphia paid eleven dollars to hear Raquel Meller sing Andalusian popular songs. But she told me a few weeks before she would not think of going to hear â€Å"that woman. † Clara Smith, a great artist, sing Negro folk songs. † (Hughes, Langston) This is the problem with many blacks. They don’t support their own people in anything because they don’t feel it will be accepted by whites and, that is ultimately what they want. Hughes also alludes to how blacks don’t’ support their own until whites do. His example is â€Å"a young colored writer who had been writing well for the colored magazines for some years, but it was not until he recently broke into the white publications and his first book was accepted by a prominent New York publisher that the â€Å"best† Negros in his city took the trouble to discover that he lived there. † (Hughes, Langston) The key here is â€Å"white. † Blacks are afraid to be who they are because white is seen as the ultimate goal. Black is seen as inferior. So can this be applied to test taking? It certainly can. If blacks are feeling inferior then their test performance cannot be as good as whites. Hughes is saying that being black is a hindrance that was built by blacks ourselves. But can this still be applied to all blacks. No it can’t because not all blacks come from households where white power is subconsciously feed to them. Some come from homes where black is celebrated. But for some reason the gap is still there but why? Shelby Steele’s position on the matter is based on the theory of White Guilt. White Guilt is a â€Å"vacuum of moral authority in matters of race, equality and opportunity that comes from the association of mere white skin with America’s historical racism. It is the stigmatization of whites and, more importantly, American institutions with the sin of racism. † (Steele, Shelby) Simply meaning that all white institutions are doing whatever they have to do not to appear racist. According to Steele this started right after the civil-rights movement. Where he believes that blacks made, â€Å"the greatest miscalculation in black American history. † (Steele, Shelby) He says, we allowed ourselves to see a greater power in America’s liability for our oppression than we saw in ourselves. (Steele, Shelby) This meaning blacks saw an opportunity to get lazy because they thought they could get more out of taking what whites give rather then working to take their own. According to Steele, blacks have been living in an age of white guilt for about a few decades now. So Steele is taking the position that the achievement gap is where it is at because blacks do not have to work as much as they did before. Steele uses the example of a University. There is no way that they would admit students just based on academia because chances are there would be little to no black faces at the University. This university would be called racist and scrutinized heavily. In Modern time, it is politically correct to include blacks in all walks of life. During the Civil Rights Movement, being black was terrible thing. You were punished for it. Today blacks are rewarded for it in many ways. It is good but bad also. This age of white guilt is a time where the black person â€Å"lives in a society that needs his race for the good it wants to do more than it needs his individual self. His race makes him popular with the white institutions and unifies him with blacks. † (Steele, Shelby) This however limits him as a person. This gives him less desire to work hard. What’s the point when things will just be put in his hand anyway? Steele uses Dr. Cornel West as an example. Dr. West was promoted to a full professorship at Harvard, which is a very high honor. However Steele says, â€Å"It was never Cornel West-the individual- that Harvard wanted; it was the defanged protest identity that he carried, which redounded to the university as racial innocence itself. How could anyone charge this university with racism when it promoted Cornel West to its higher reaches? † (Steele, Shelby) So there lies the main point. Dr. West achieved high position by doing less work. This is Steele’s explanation as to why the achievement gap is there. Blacks simply do not have to work as hard as they once did to succeed because the whites are â€Å"too eager for the moral authority black skin offers them. † (Steele, Shelby) Can this explanation be applied to all blacks? Again some blacks are exempt from this. Some take the easy way out and take full advantage of things like affirmative action. However, some do actually work at what they do. But, for some reason, there is still a gap within this group that is working hard. Why is that? Claude M. Steele offers the concept of Stereotype Threat as the reason this gap exists. Stereotype threat is â€Å"the threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype, or the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotype. † (Steele, Claude M) Stereotype threat can be used to explain the reason that hard working goal oriented black Americans contribute to the achievement gap. When it comes to matters of race, it is assumed that a particular situation is experienced in much the same way by different groups of people. This is especially assumed to be true in test taking. However, this is often times not true for blacks. Steele says, â€Å"But for black students, difficulty with the test makes the negative stereotype relevant as an interpretation of their performance, and of them. They know that they are especially likely to be seen as having limited ability. † (Steele, Claude M) It is not that blacks are in anyway inferior its just a certain pressure is always put on them when doing things like taking test. This is because tests are often given as a test to measure ability, so because of the negative stereotype blacks feel an added pressure and succumb to it. From one experiment- focusing on vocabulary- Steele performed on black and white students, his conclusion came to be that, â€Å" When black students were told that the test would measure ability, they completed the fragments with significantly more stereotype-related words that when they were told that it was not a measure of ability. † Now the thing about stereotype threat is that it is not like the â€Å"self –filling prophecy. † They don’t think they will perform inadequately and then in-turn score low. Steele says Stereotype threat, â€Å"is something different something external: the situational threat of being negatively stereotyped. So Stereotype threat can be applied to hard working black Americans because it only exist if they care that the negative stereotype is there. So these students actually work so hard to disprove the stereotype that they actually hinder themselves. For one of Steele’s experiments he noticed this to be true. He say s, â€Å" Black students taking the test under stereotype threat seemed to be trying to hard rather than not hard enough. They reread the question, reread the multiple choice, and recheck their answers, more then when they were not under stereotype threat. (Steele, Claude M) So what this did was make the test takers inefficient. If you think to long on standardized to you are automatically hindering a very good score. So the reason hard working black Americans contribute to the gap is evident. But, like it was previously stated, not all black Americans actually work hard so this cannot be the only reason the gap exist. I believe the gap exist because of a combination of a few of the afore mentioned arguments. Yes Sowell’s point is valid but the culture argument cannot be applied to all blacks. Yes Langston Hughes point is valid but his aspect of culture cannot be applied to all blacks. The same goes for both Shelby and Claude Steele. Applying one of these theories to an entire race of people to explain the gap in test scores will just not suffice. I can honestly say that throughout my life experiences that I have seen every theory for myself. I have seen and lived among the people that these theories apply to and I believe that it all culminates to create the observed gap between African Americans and other ethnic groups. Sowell is absolutely correct when he says there is a self destructive, counterproductive culture in the nations ghettos. Everyone I know from these areas thinks that way. They do not like learning; they hate hard work and are content being at the lower rungs of life. So when the children do go to school and take there standardized test, more often then not, they don’t try. They have a â€Å"whatever† attitude towards it. And for the few that do try, they just aren’t prepared because the people around them and raising them have this disdain towards learning. I have a close connection with people who embody the â€Å"White Guilt† theory and the â€Å"Stereotype threat† idea. I have lived with it all of my life and I can say it has affected me. In high school and even in college I have seen an abundance of students who are whole-heartedly living in the age of white guilt. It’s not that they don’t’ try it’s just they do enough to get by because they know if they make it to a certain point, aids like affirmative action and minority quotas will take them where they need to go. So when it comes to test taking they do try, but won’t stress themselves out over it. Although they are just as smart as their white counterparts, they just don’t see the need to put in the extra effort. Students that experience stereotype threat are just as prevalent. I can say that I fit into this mold. These students do in fact try to hard. They try so hard to prove the stereotype wrong they actually end of proving it. They try so hard not to make mistakes on the test that they do. They try so hard not to contribute to the gap, they actually do. So the reason the gap exist is a combination of many different people that come from different demographics and situations. All of these added together make the achievement gap in test scores. It is clear to see that this gap cannot be explained by one theory. Too many blacks come from to many different situations for this to be the case. So we can see that when these are added up it amounts to the gap in test scores among other things. So how can it be fixed? Just like there is not one factor contributing to the gap, there is not one way to fix the gap. The solution would be more of a chain reaction effect. The problem starts in the inner city where the lazy â€Å"I don’t care† attitude is prevalent. These are the people that create the negative stereotype black people have. So the blacks that are doing better than these people and are trying to do better in life have to bear the burden that the â€Å"ghetto† blacks place on them. The people that apply to Hughes theory are ashamed of them. The people in Shelby Steele’s theory are lazy because the world is trying to integrate them (the ghetto blacks). And the people in Claude Steele’s theory are working so hard to overcome the stereotype the â€Å"ghetto† blacks have placed on them. Until the blacks from the inner city change nothing will. The blacks in the higher rungs of life can’t change their ways, in this case test taking ways, until the burden placed on them is lifted. So until the inner city mentality changes, the gap will forever be there. Works Cited CHRISTOPHER, JENCKS. â€Å"The Black-White Test Score Gap. † The New York Times. 1998. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. . Hughes, Langston. â€Å"†The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain† (1926). † Welcome to English  « Department of English, College of LAS, University of Illinois. 926. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. . Sowell, Thomas. â€Å"Thomas Sowell — Crippled by Their Culture. † OrthodoxyToday. org | Home. 26 Apr. 2005. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. . Steele, Shelby. â€Å"The Age of White Guilt: and the Disappearance of the Black Individual. † CIR Home. Nov. 2002. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. . Steele, Claude M. â€Å"Thin Ice: â€Å"Stereotype Threat† and Black College Students â⠂¬â€œ 99. 08. † The Atlantic — News and Analysis on Politics, Business, Culture, Technology, National, International, and Food a? â€Å" TheAtlantic. com. 1999. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. . How to cite The African American Achievement Gap:, Papers

Shouldice Hospital Case Essay Example

Shouldice Hospital Case Paper 1. ) How well is the hospital currently utilizing its bed? 90 beds x 7 days/ week = 630 beds available in a week 30 patients x 3 days x 5 days per week = 450 beds utilized 450 beds utilized / 630 availble beds = 71. 43% The hospital is currently utilizing 71. 43% of their beds, this is actually an ideal operating point. To increase its rate of utilization might decrease the service quality. 2. ) Develop a similar table to show the effects of adding operations on Saturday. (Assume that 30 operations would still be performed each day. ) Check-in DayMondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySunday Monday303030. Tuesday303030 Wednesday303030 Thursday303030 Friday303030 Saturday Sunday303030 Total60909090906060 How would this affect the utilization of the bed capacity? Is this capacity sufficient for the additonal patients? 90 beds x 7 days/ week = 630 beds available in a week 30 patients x 3 days x 6 days per week = 540 beds utilized 540 beds utilized / 630 beds available = 85. 71% Adding operations on Saturday will improved the utilization rate of beds from 71. 43% to 85. 71%. It is still sufficient; however, we might risk the service quality. 3. ) Now look at the effect of increasing the number of beds by 50%. How many operations could the hospital perform per day before running out of bed capacity? (Assume operations are performed five days per week, with the same number performed on each day). 90 beds x 1. 50 = 135 beds 135 beds x 7 days = 945 beds available in a week 945 beds / 3 days x 5 days in a week = 63 operations per day The hospital could perform a maximum of 63 operations per day if the beds are increase by 50%. How well would the new resources be utilized relative to the current operation? 30 patients x 3 days x 5 days per week = 450 beds utilized 135 beds x 7 days = 945 beds available in a week We will write a custom essay sample on Shouldice Hospital Case specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Shouldice Hospital Case specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Shouldice Hospital Case specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer 450 beds utilized / 945 beds available = 47. 62% With the current operation, the utilization rate would only be 47. 62% if the beds would be increased by 50%. If we would add additional beds, we also need to accept more patients to fully utilize the investment. Could the hospital really perform this many operations? Why? (Hint: Look at the capacity of the 12 surgeons and the five operating rooms. ) Operating room maximum capacity: 8 operations (7:30- 4:00) (one operation per hour) x 5 operating rooms = 40 operations 12 surgeons x 4 operations per surgeon = 48 operations 7 assitant surgeons x 4 operations per surgeon = 28 operations. The case states that surgeons operate on 4 patients per. If surgeons means all the full time surgeons only, we have a maximum of 40 possible operations; thus the 30 operations per day is feasible. However, if we would include the part-time surgeons as surgeons that operates 4 patients per day, only 28 operations is feasible. 4. ) Although financial data are sketchy, an estimate from a construction company indicates that adding bed capacity would cost about $100,000 per bed. In addition, the rate charged for the hernia surgery varies between about $900 and $2,000, with an average rate of $1,300 per operation. Due to all uncertainties in government health care legislation, Shouldice would like to justify an expansion within a five-year time period. Option 1 Add 50% more beds Investment cost in adding 50% more beds : 45 beds x $100,000 = $4,500,000 Revenue: Maximum of 40 operations per days (maximum capacity for 5 operating rooms) x 5 days per week x 52 weeks per year = maximum 10,400 operations per year 10,400 operations x $1,300 = $13,520,000 Surgeon cost: (Assuming $600 for the full-time surgeon, payment for assistant surgeon is not given /included. ) 10,400 operations x $600 = $ 6,240,000 Maximum Annual Profit = $7,280,000 For five years = $36,400,000 Five years profit less the 45 beds investment = $31,900,000 Option 2 Add 1 more operating day (Saturday) Revenue: Maximum of 40 operations per days (maximum capacity for 5 operating rooms) x 6 days per week x 52 weeks per year = maximum 12,480 operations per year 12,480 operations x $1,300 = $16,224,000. Surgeon cost: (Assuming $600 for the full-time surgeon, payment for assistant surgeon is not given /included. ) 12,480 operations x $600 = $ 7,488,000 Annual Profit = $8,736,000 Five years profit = $43,680,000 Recommendation: With 90 beds and the current operation, the hospital is doing well. Their existing system and reputation have already set them apart as a market leader and has proven to be a profitable setup. However, there is still an unmet demand. Option 1 to add 50% more beds may not be beneficial if we dont also increase operation. Increasing the number of bed by 50% would not be advisable unless they would add more surgeons and operating rooms because the existing operating rooms capacity and number of surgeons could not fill an addition of 45 beds. They would be operating the surgery rooms at over capacity. Option 2 that involves adding one more day of operation is also valid as it would utilize resource capacity. However, adding a Saturday can also have a negative impact on the work force that drive down the service quality that gives the hospital a competitive advantage. This could be offset by hiring addition staff and consequently adding operating rooms. Adding more surgeons only and thinking they could extend operating hours beyond 4:00pm to fully utilized operating rooms is not a good option as this may disturb the scheduled dinner at 6:00pm. This get-together by patients is a major factor that contributes to the hospitals success. Between the two options given, option 2 to add one more operating day is more profitable. I would recommend combining the two options plus hiring more staffs and adding more operating rooms. However, due to limited information given by the case. We cant compute if this option is indeed more profitable than the rest. Shouldice Hospital Case Essay Example Shouldice Hospital Case Essay â€Å"Shouldice hospital, the house that hernias built, is a converted country estate which gives the hospital ‘a country club’ appeal. † A quote from American Medical News Shouldice Hospital in Canada is widely known for one thing-hernia repair! In fact, that is the only operation it performs, and it performs a great many of them. Over the past two decades this small 90-bed hospital has averaged 7,000 operations annually. Last year, it had a record year and performed nearly 7,500 operations. Patients’ ties to Shouldice do not end when they leave the hospital. Every year the gala Hernia Reunion dinner (with  complimentary hernia inspection) draws in excess of 1,000 former patients, some of whom have been attending the event for over 30 years. A number of notable features in Shouldice’s service delivery system contribute to its success. (1) Shouldice accepts only patients with the uncomplicated external hernias, and it uses a superior technique developed for this type of hernia by Dr. Shouldice during World War II. (2) Patients are subject to early ambulation, which promotes healing. (Patients literally walk off the operating table and engage in light exercise throughout  their stay, which lasts only three days) (3) We will write a custom essay sample on Shouldice Hospital Case specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Shouldice Hospital Case specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Shouldice Hospital Case specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Its country club atmosphere, gregarious nursing staff, and built-in socializing make a surprisingly pleasant experience out of an inherently unpleasant medical problem. Regular times are set aside for tea, cookies, and socializing. All patients are paired up with a roommate with similar background and interests. THE PRODUCTION SYSTEM The medical facilities at Shouldice consist of five operating rooms, a patient recovery room, a laboratory, and six examination rooms. Shouldice performs, on average, 150  operations per week, with patients generally staying at the hospital for three days. Although operations are performed only five days a week, the remainder of the hospital is in operation continuously to attend to recovering patients. An operation at Shouldice Hospital is performed by one of the 12 full-time surgeons assisted by one of seven part-time assistant surgeons. Surgeons generally take about one hour to prepare for and perform each hernia operation, and they operate on four patients per day. The surgeons’ day ends at 4 P. M. , although they can expect to be on call every  14 TH night and every 10 TH weekend. 2 THE SHOULDICE EXPERIENCE Each patient undergoes a screening exam prior to setting a date for his or her operation. Patients in the Toronto area are encouraged to walk in for the diagnosis. Examinations are done between 9 a. m. and 3:30 p. m. Monday through Friday, and between 10 a. m. and 2 p. m. on Saturday. Out-of-town patients are mailed a medical information questionnaire (also available over the Internet), which is used for the diagnosis. A small percentage of the patients who are overweight or otherwise represent an undue medical risk are refused treatment. The remaining patients receive confirmation cards with the scheduled dates for their operations. A patient’s folder is transferred to the reception desk once an arrival date is confirmed. Patients arrive at the clinic between 1 and 3 P. M. the day before their surgery. After a short wait, they receive a brief preoperative examination. They are then sent to an admissions clerk to complete any necessary paperwork. Patients are next directed to one of the two nurses’ stations for blood and urine tests and then are shown to their rooms. They spend the remaining time before orientation getting settled and acquainting themselves with their roommates. Orientation begins at 5 P. M. , followed by dinner in the common dining room. Later in the evening, at 9 P. M. , patients gather in the lounge area for tea and cookies. Here new patients can talk with patients who have already had their surgery. Bedtime is between 9:30 and 10 P. M. On the day of the operation, patients with early operations are awakened at 5:30 A. M. for preoperative sedation. The first operations begin at 7:30 A. M. Shortly before an operation starts, the patient is administered a local anesthetic, leaving him or her alert and fully  aware of the proceedings. At the conclusion of the operation, the patient is invited to walk from the operating table to a nearby wheel-chair, which is waiting to return the patient to his or her room. After a brief period of rest, the patient is encouraged to get up and start exercising. By 9 P. M. that day, he or she is in the lounge having cookies and tea and talking with new, incoming patients. The skin clips holding the incision together are loosened, and some are removed, the next day. The remainder are removed the following morning just before the patient is  discharged. When Shouldice Hospital started, the average hospital stay for hernia surgery was three weeks. Today, many institutions push â€Å"same day surgery† for a variety of reasons. Shouldice Hospital firmly believes that this is not in the best interests of patients, and is committed to its three-day process. Shouldice’s postoperative rehabilitation program is designed to enable the patient to resume normal activities with minimal interruption and discomfort. Shouldice patients frequen6tly return to work in a few days; the average total time off is eight days. 3  Ã¢â‚¬Å"It is interesting to note that approximately 1 out of every 100 Shouldice patients is a medical doctor. † FUTURE PLANS The management of Shouldice is thinking of expanding the hospital’s capacity to serve considerable unsatisfied demand. To this effect, the vice president is seriously considering two options. The first involves adding one more day of operations (Saturday) to the existing five-day schedule, which would increase capacity by 20 percent. The second option is to add another floor of rooms to the hospital, increasing the number of beds by 50 percent. This would require more aggressive scheduling of the operating rooms. The administrator of the hospital, however, is concerned about maintaining control over the quality of the service delivered. He thinks the facility is already getting very good utilization. The doctors and the staff are happy with their jobs, and the patients are satisfied with the service. According to him, further expansion of capacity might make it hard to maintain the same kind of working relationships and attitudes. Exhibit 1 Operations with 90 Beds (30 patients per day) BEDS REQUIRED ___________________________________________________________________________________ CHECK-IN DAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY Monday 30 30 30 Tuesday 30 30 30 Wednesday 30 30 30 Thursday 30 30 30 Friday Saturday Sunday 30 30 30 Total 60 90 90 90 60 30 30 QUESTIONS  Exhibit 1 is a room-occupancy table for the existing system. Each row in the table follows the patients that checked in on a given day. The columns indicate the number of patients in the hospital on a given day. For example, the first row of the table shows that 30 people checked in on Monday and were in the hospital for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. By summing the columns of the table for Wednesday, we see that there are 90 patients staying in the hospital that day. 1. How well is the hospital currently utilizing its beds? 2. Develop a similar table to show the effects of adding operations on Saturday. (Assume that 30 operations would still be performed each day. ) How would this affect the utilization of the bed capacity? Is this capacity sufficient for the additional patients? 4 3. Now look at the effect of increasing the number of beds by 50 percent. How many operations could the hospital perform per day before running out of bed capacity? (Assume operations are performed five days per week, with the same number performed on each day. ) How well the new resources utilized relative to the current operation? Could the hospital really perform this many operations? Why? (Hint: Look at the capacity of the 12 surgeons and the five operating rooms. ) 4. Although financial data are sketchy, an estimate from a construction company indicates that adding bed capacity would cost about Rs 100,000 per bed. In addition, the rate charged for the hernia surgery varies between about Rs 900 and Rs 2,000, with an average rate of Rs 1,300 per operation. The surgeons are paid a flat Rs 600 per operation. Due to all the uncertainties in government health care legislation, Shouldice would like to justify any expansion within a five-year time  period. _________________________________________________________________ Selected Bibliography Amran, M. , and N. Kulatilaka. â€Å"Discipliend Decisions: Aligning Strategy with the Financial Markets. † Harvard Business Review, January-February 1999, pp. 95-104. Bakke, N. A. , and R. Hellberg. â€Å"The Challenges of Capacity Planning. † International Journal of Production Economics 30-31 (1993), pp. 243-64 Correll, J. G. , and N. W. Edson. Gaining Control: Capacity Management and Scheduling. 2 ND ed. New York: Wiley, 1998. Hammesfahr, R. D. Jack; J. A. Pope; and A. Ardalan. â€Å"Strategic Planning for  Production Capacity. † Internal Journal of Operations and Production Management 13, no. 5 (1993), pp. 41-53. Meyer, C. Fast Cycle Time: How to Align Purpose, Strategy and Structure for Speed. New York: Free Press, 1993. Giffi, C. ; A. V. Roth; and G. M. Seal, eds. Competing in World-Class Manufacturing: National Center for Manufacturing Sciences. Homewood, IL: Business One Irwin, 1990. Govil, M. , and J. Proth. Supply Chain Design and Management. Burlington, MA: Academic Press, 2001. Yu-Lee, R. T. Essentials of Capacity Management, New York: Wiley, 2002. Shouldice Hospital Case Essay Example Shouldice Hospital Case Essay 1. How well is the Shouldice Hospital doing? From our point of view, Shouldice Hospital is very successful and is getting more popular. This can be concluded according to the following facts, which we took out of the â€Å"Shouldice Hospital Limited† case: -â€Å"Under Dr. Obney’s leadership, the volume of activity continued to increase, reaching a total of 6,850 operations in the 1982 calendar year. † (p. 2) -â€Å"It was thought that most potential Shouldice patients learned about the hospital and its methods from past patients who had already experienced them. †(p.3) -â€Å"During their stay, patients were encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to explore the premises and make new friends. † (p. 5) -â€Å"Patients sometimes ask to stay an extra day [†¦]. They share experiences with other patients, make friends easily, and have the run of the hospital†. (p. 5) -â€Å"When I interview prospective surgeons, I look for experience and a good education. I try to gain some insight into their domestic situation and personal interests and habits. † (p. 6) -â€Å"Excellence is the enemy of good. † (p. 6) -â€Å"Experience is most important. The typical general surgeon may perform 25 to 50 hernia operations per year. Our perform 600 or more. † (p. 7) -â€Å"Training in the Shouldice technique was important because the procedure could not be varied. It was accomplished through direct supervision by one or more of the senior surgeons. † (p. 7) â€Å"The steps are designed specially with a small rise to allow patients recently operated on to negotiate the stairs without undue discomfort. Every square foot of the hospital is carpeted to reduce the hospital feeling and the possibility of all. We will write a custom essay sample on Shouldice Hospital Case specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Shouldice Hospital Case specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Shouldice Hospital Case specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer † (p. 8) -â€Å"We don’t have an organization chart. A chart tends to make people think they’re boxed into jobs. † (p. 9) â€Å"The hospital relied entirely on word-of-mouth advertising [†¦]† (p. 10) Shouldice Hospital is focused on good working conditions. It tries to meet people’s needs and makes the hospital as good of a place to work as possible; not only for the patients, but also for the members of the hospital staff: For example surgeons, assistants and nurses were rotated every few days or weeks that they get as much experience as possible. Furthermore each secretary is trained to do another’s work and in an emergency is able to switch to another function immediately. In spite of the fact that the pay scale for the staff is higher than the union scale for comparable jobs, there is also a high bonus pool and profit-sharing plan for all of the employees. The hospital also provides some free services for parents, who accompany their children and also provides free annual checkups for past patients. As a conclusion, Shouldice Hospital is doing well in capacity, service, quality, efficiency and performance. What performance exactly means and how you account performance will be answered in the next question. 2. How do you account for its performance? To answer this question we looked at the literature of performance management and tried to relate the theoretical background with the information provided in the â€Å"Shouldice Hospital Limited† case material. In business literature several different approaches to performance exist. In organizational development, performance can be thought of as actual results vs. desired results. Any discrepancy, where actual is less than desired, could constitute the performance improvement zone. Performance management and improvement can be thought of as a cycle: 1. Performance planning where goals and objectives are established. 2. Performance coaching where a manager intervenes to give feedback and adjust performance. 3. Performance appraisal where individual performance is formally documented and feedback delivered. A performance problem is any gap between desired results and actual results. Performance improvement is any effort targeted at closing the gap between actual results and desired results. Other organizational development definitions are slightly different. The US Governments Office of Personnel Management indicates that performance management consists of a system or process whereby: 1. Work is planned and expectations are set, 2. Performance of work is monitored, 3. Staff ability to perform is developed and enhanced, 4. Performance is rated or measured and the ratings summarized and 5. Top performance is rewarded. In Business performance management literature, performance is described as a set of processes that help businesses discover efficient use of their business units, financial, human and material resources. The definition of  performance in Operational performance management literature focuses on creating methodical and predictable ways to improve business results, or performance, across organizations. The answer to question 1 of our paper focuses on actual performance of the Shouldice hospital and the answers to questions 4, 5 concentrate on ways to improve hospital’s capacity, which covers the operational management approach to performance. Since the case material is short on data as far as desired results are concerned, we will take historical and comparative approach in order to account the performance of Shouldice Hospital. Since the number of operations is considered by us as the most important measure of performance, from historical perspective we can see that performance on this measure has been increasing steadily since year 1982. â€Å"[†¦] the volume of activity continued to increase, reaching a total of 6,850 operations in the 1982 calendar year. † The average number of operations per year reached 7750 (please see question 4 for reference) at the time of interview. Increased number of operations indicates the higher number of patients, which could also indicate a high customer satisfaction level. Since the hospital in not using any marketing strategy to attract clients, and â€Å"relied entirely on word of mouth advertising† , we could presume that satisfaction reached desired results and increased the number of new patients. We could also look at the performance from financial perspective in terms of employees’ salaries â€Å"we try to maintain a pay scale higher than the union scale for comparable jobs in the area† . Ability to pay above average market salaries indicates reaching target revenues and non-existent or minimal gap between desired results and actual results for financial performance. From the facts in Shouldice hospital case material, high involvement of experienced surgeons in coaching and giving feedback in order to maintain high quality of operations could be also observed. â€Å"Training in the Shouldice technique was important because the procedure could not be varied. It was accomplished through direct supervision by one or more of the senior surgeons. The rotation of teams and frequent consultation allowed for an ongoing opportunity to appraise performance and take corrective action. † The above example of training program gives us insight on personnel management at Shouldice hospital. Here we can refer to The US Governments Office of Personnel Management approach to performance. Holistic approach to personnel performance management including planning, monitoring, development, performance evaluation and reward system (â€Å"bonuses to doctors were voted by the board of directors twice a year, depending on profit and performance† ) are integral parts of this approach and all of them, according to data from case material, exist (and are of great importance to Shouldice hospital’s management. We looked at different performance measures and approaches from comparative and historic perspective in order to answer this question. With the data given in the case and the facts outlined in the answer to question 1, we can conclude that in all discussed fields, i. e. customer satisfaction, capacity, financial performance and personnel management Shouldice Hospital is performing with no gap between actual results and desired results. 3. Develop a process flow chart for Shouldice Hospital. In this answer, we will provide a process flow chart for patients, who have had their hernias repaired at Shouldice Hospital. A process flow chart deals with a schematic diagram for describing a process. From our point of view, the real process starts when the patient arrives at Shouldice Hospital. That’s the reason why we do not have the previous steps (filling out questionnaires (1), patients getting their operation dates (2), information logged into the computer (3), patients sent their confirmation cards (4), patients contacted by phone (5)) in our process flow chart. Our process flow chart starts at 1:00-3:00 P. M. , when the patient arrives at Shouldice Hospital with 30 to 34 other patients. As you can see from the process flow chart, after four days, a patient is ready for discharge. This multi-stage process flow chart also includes a lot of buffers , where the patient has to wait till the next step in the process flow chart can be processed. As you can see on the last slide of the process flow chart, there is only limited information available about the third and fourth day. Finally, patients can leave Shouldice Hospital after four days. 4. What is Shouldice Hospital’s capacity? First of all, to make more clear how we interpreted this question, we will give a definition of capacity: â€Å"Capacity means the number/throughput of  units a facility can hold or produce in a period of time. † If we adjust this explanation to the Shouldice case, we assume that the capacity of the hospital is the maximum number of patients who can have an operation during one year. Referring to the case, the peak activity occurs in September when as many as 165 operations per week might be performed. Each year has 52 weeks, however according to the text: â€Å"For many of the same reasons, the hospital closed for two weeks late in December each year,† this means to a total of 50 work weeks each year. Using this information we can assume that the weekly capacity would be 165 patients and the yearly capacity being 8,250 operations. Alternatively, using an average figure of 155 weekly operations performed, this will result in a yearly average capacity of 7,750 operations. Also the capacity could be the number of beds, â€Å"Initially, a 36-bed capacity was create in Thornhill, but after some years of planning, a large wing was added to the house to provide a total capacity of 89-beds. † 5. As Dr. Shouldice, what actions, if any, would you take to expand the hospital’s capacity? In order to create further opportunities to expand the hospital’s capacity, and secure future growth, Dr. Shouldice should expand the hospital’s facilities into the U. S. This notion supported by the case, which states, â€Å"Approximately 42% of all Shouldice patients came from the United States† (p. 3). As of now, these patients are forced to pay â€Å"roughly $200 to $600† (p. 10) to travel to Toronto and patients from the U. S. must now have passports when travelling to Canada. Having a hospital in the U. S.  could reduce some of the costs of travelling for these patients, decrease some of the anxiety of travelling to a foreign country, and make the facilities more accessible for potential patients. Additionally, it would be in the best interest of the hospital to diversify its practice and pursue â€Å"opportunities such as eye surgery, varicose veins, or hemorrhoids† (p. 11). An expansion to the U. S. is an enormous undertaking and since opening a facility in the U. S. is akin to starting anew this is an opportune time for Shouldice Hospital to diversify their opportunities. Based upon Exhibit 4 in the case study, â€Å"it is quite clear that others are trying to emulate us,† which means that Shouldice Hospital is the premier hernia care provider. Now that they have mastered the hernia care and procedures, they must now transfer that knowledge of patient care to other areas of medicine. A staggering 86% of the attendees of the 1983 Shouldice Hospital Annual Reunion responded that Shouldice Hospital most definitely cared for them as a person (Exhibit 3, p. 16). With numbers like these and given Shouldice’s record of accomplishments, it is time for Shouldice to move forward and expand their opportunities. Furthermore, it would be in the best interest of the hospital to patent its world-renowned hernia procedure. Currently the procedure is available to all hospitals who, â€Å"may copy our technique and misapply it or misinform their patients about the use of it. This can result in failure, and we are concerned that the technique will be blamed for the recurrences. † (p. 11). Occurrences such as these can denounce the Shouldice name and can hinder potential patients from looking into Shouldice’s procedures. Shouldice should also look into advertising its procedures in order to increase its capacity. Presently, Shouldice is â€Å"afraid to send out this new brochure [they’ve] put together for fear it will generate too much demand† (p. 11). Advertising, in correlation with the expansion into the U. S. , would greatly increase the awareness of Shouldice because â€Å"the hospital relied entirely on word-of-mouth advertising† (p. 10). With the expansion into the U. S. Shouldice would be able to support the extra demand generated by an advertising campaign. The main types of advertising Shouldice should consider are direct mailings, magazine/newspaper ads, and infomercials. The atmosphere at Shouldice in Toronto is definitely one of a kind. The patients, nurses, and surgeons all have a special bond rarely seen in a hospital, which greatly contributes to the success of Shouldice. In such a quaint working environment, it is important to consider the needs of everyone involved when contemplating facility expansions and work schedule changes. With this in mind, and seeing that there are only a small number of workers, all of whom do not agree on a work schedule change to add Saturdays, Shouldice should continue its present work schedule and not add Saturday operations. Additionally, adding a floor to the current facility would greatly change the working dynamics of the hospital and the quaint environment in which the patients and staff thrive. Adding a new floor and Saturday operations may add revenue but it would take away from all that Shouldice stands for. As the case states, â€Å"‘I’d hate to see the practice split over the issue’† (p. 12). Finally, Shouldice should look into updating and digitalizing its computer systems. This will not only expedite the administrative process but would also lower patients’ waiting time and reduce the stress attributed to masses of paperwork. Patients should be able to fill out all the necessary paperwork one time on a computer and then not be bothered until the procedure. In addition, digitalizing Shouldice’s system would make the brochure sent out to patients (Exhibit 1) a more fluid process. If the form was available on the Internet then there would be faster response times and fewer mistakes. 6. How would you implement changes you propose? Based upon the information provided in the case, it seems as though Dr. Shouldice already has a few places in the U. S. in mind for the hospital (p. 11). We would encourage him to do further research to determine where the best geographic region is according to demand for hernia operations as well as the other opportunities mentioned (eye surgery, varicose veins, or hemorrhoids). Dr. Shouldice must also consider the cost of building a new facility and future revenues derived from greater capacity. In order to protect the surgery that has made the hospital so famous, Dr. Shouldice would need to apply for patents through the provincial government. Moreover, it would be wise for Dr. Shouldice to apply for patents in the U.S. as well before he begins operations there. Taking the necessary steps to obtain a patent would secure Shouldice’s unique surgical procedure and their future success. Although Shouldice currently handles all of their own operations, it is necessary for them to hire an advertising agency to launch a new campaign. An advertising agency has much more experience and knowledge about best practices and with the guidance of the administrative staff they could work together to achieve the desired outcome. Shouldice should consider advertising for their U. S. facility as soon as an expansion plan is completed and for their Toronto facility as soon as the U. S. facility is open. This would promote awareness among U. S. patients prior to the opening of the facility and give the Toronto facility enough time to phase out some existing U. S. patients. A test period of six months should be implemented and if the advertising proves successful then further implementation and changes can be made. The first step Shouldice should take to implement a new computer system is to find a company who provides the services they are looking for. Then the two sides would need to work together to develop computer software that fits the specific needs of Shouldice. Next, employee training would be required to familiarize all necessary parties with the new system. Then, a test period would be needed to ensure that the computer software was working properly and that all employees knew how it worked. Finally, the old system Shouldice currently uses would cease to exist and the new system would be fully implemented.