Rousseau's Community Theory

Many people have different ideas of what a community is and what makes a community successful, but, overall, the themes of unity and cooperation come to mind. The writer Rousseau displayed his thoughts about community in his book, The main idea he discussed was that people must surrender their freedom in order to gain the benefits of functioning collectively as a group. I decided to test this theory by observing some of the staff members of a nursing home who are attending a meeting to come up with specific solutions for each residents’ weight loss problem. Every week the same staff members, which include the director of nursing, two unit managers, the dietary manager, and the dietician, meet to review the weights of all patients and, more …show more content…
One particular part of Rousseau’s t theory states that communities “must develop some sort of central direction and learn to act in concert.” The people attending the meeting appeared to be doing this throughout the entire time my observations took place. For example, the “central direction” they developed was the goal of creating a specific meal plan for each resident who was losing weight. One way the staff members showed to be working towards their goal was when each staff member gave suggestions for solutions to weight loss in general. These interventions for weight loss included verifying the resident is getting food they like, giving them fortified food, encouraging them to come to the dining hall, running their labs to check for other health issues, giving them larger portions, providing them with snacks, giving them an appetite stimulant, and giving them a house supplement. The development of this list of solutions suggest that the group has a “sense of central direction” because they are all thinking about the problem at hand, and they are all staying focused on the task. Without the ability of the staff members to think of general fixes to the residents’ …show more content…
One way in which they displayed Rousseau’s theory was when they discussed the exact steps they must take to get the residents the individualized meal plans. The steps they discussed involved each person putting their individual powers together to create a concentration of powers. The nurse suggests to the doctor to write an order providing the resident with the certain solution to their weight loss, the doctor then has to confirm the order, and the dietician manager receives the order and communicates with the dietary department to make sure the order is fulfilled. The outcome is the resident getting the proper treatment to help them gain or maintain their weight. This results in the staff members accomplishing their goal because each individualized person involved has their own will to do as they please but everybody is joining together and agreeing that the meal plans being discussed are the best solution for weight loss. Because of this agreement, each person is doing their part to get the intended outcome and giving up their power to the group. While the staff members did seem to display Rousseau’s theory, there was one instance in which the goal was not met. When they discussed the steps they needed to take to get the residents