With over fifty thousand copies sold, Radical Loving Care is now a best seller. Since its publication in 2003 caregivers have been asking me to write a handbook that would summarize the key concepts. Of course, summaries cannot capture essence any more than a movie review can communicate the experience of watching the film.

This is the beginning of a book to be called, Inside Radical Loving Care:

Chapter One – The Mother Test 

"Radical Loving Care means the treatment I want for my mother."

   In 2001, a highly respected orthopedic surgeon stopped me in a hallway at Nashville's Baptist Hospital. 

   "This loving care stuff is nice, Erie. But, what difference does it make to my patients? If someone comes to me with a broken leg, they want me to fix it. The leg doesn't need loving care."

   "But, the leg is attached to a person" I said. "Doesn't the person need loving care?

   His face defined both skepticism and curiosity. 

   "What if the person with the broken leg was your mother?" I asked him. 

   His eyes softened. "I would want her to have the most loving care possible."

   What is "the most loving care possible?" I asked myself. It is the kind illustrated in the Parable of the Good Samaritan – consistent, compassionate and competent. It is also so rare that it can only be called "radical."

   The orthopedic surgeon's misinterpretation of professionalism had blocked him from understanding that a physician heals when he or she loves his patients rather than just "fixes" them. Once he imagined his patients as needing what his mother needed, he could become a true caregiver.

   We all hold within us the capacity for Radical Loving Care. 

   Deschelle, a housekeeper at Baptist Hospital, provided a great definition. "Loving care means helping other people no matter what," she told me. 

   The Mother Test asks: If your mother came into the hospital, hospice or nursing home where you work, how confident would you be that every single caregiver she encountered would give her loving care?

   This means every person in every department on every shift.

   If a caregiver cannot be counted on to pass this test, why are they allowed to deliver care?

   Is this standard unrealistic?

   Fortunately, it is not only possible but I have seen it in action. 

   Organizations pass The Mother Test when they develop a culture of Radical Loving Care. When the culture is established (it often takes years) loving care is the only acceptable behavior. 

   In the presence of a healing culture, every caregiver is hired to the standards of a loving environment.

   Every supervisor is trained to these standards.

   Every interaction is guided by one question: "Is it a Sacred Encounter?"

   When organizations care about their mission and when caregivers believe in their work as a calling, then, and only then, does the Mother Test become reality.

   Only then can you be confident that your mother, or someone else you love, will have a healing experience in the place you work. 

-Erie Chapman