shahbaz

[Matthew Gordon]

In a story about nursing home reform on NPR this morning they profiled a
home called the Green House Project. A nurse's aid in this facility is known
as a "shahbaz," a term apparently coined by them - I think they explained
the need for a whole new term to describe their new approach to elder care.

On the website for the Green House Project you can read "The legend of the
Shahbaz" which is a story written to explain the term. For those fans of
Cliff's Notes among you: Shahbaz was the name of some falcon who originally
served a bad king and eventually became filled with compassion and had to
help the downtrodden. It's a delightfully elaborate backstory to support
this term. But, I wondered whether the word is completely made up or just a
borrowing (the legend doesn't say). If it's a borrowing, I'm thinking it
might be Hebrew since the plural is Shahbazim. Anyone recognize it?

Link for the Project: http://thegreenhouseproject.com/concept.html