Page 46 - Life In Naples Magazine - November 2015

PASSIONAT WORK
by Allen Weiss, MD, MBA, FACP, FACR
WPresident and CEO, NCH Healthcare System
hy do we do what we do? Why we are
particularly passionate about our professions? Years ago healthcare guru Quint Studer spoke to a group
The area with which I’m most familiar and
comfortable—healthcare—accounts for
almost a fifth of our nation’s expenditures.
Let’s take a look at what makes us tick as
health care professionals, and then broaden the discussion
to other noble professions.
“Noble professions” are those in which the beneficiary’s
needs and desires are placed ahead of the practitioner’s
needs. Examples include healthcare, education, and the
ministry. The needs of a patient, student or parishioner are
paramount to the physician, teacher, or minister. And there
certainly are other noble professions including architecture
46
(where designs are created to make life’s activities better)
and food purveyors (who help all of us with sustenance).
of hundreds of healthcare professionals at the downtown
campus of the NCH Healthcare System, and related three
principles which are hallmarks of noble professionals.
Purpose, worthwhile work and making a difference combine
for a stable and long term satisfying experience for the giver
of care, the provider of education or sharer of spirituality
in the case of a physician, professor or minister. Of course,
other occupations share these principles which are not
unique or limited to healthcare, education or the ministry.
Life in Naples | November 2015