Clinical Research in Practice: A Guide for the Bedside Scientist, by Janet Houser and Joanna Bokovoy. New York, Jones and Bartlett, 2006. 277 pages, soft cover, $42.95.

Those hospitals on the Magnet journey will find this book most helpful in addressing clinical research at the bedside. In today's healthcare environment, every nurse is accountable for validating their practice. Clinical Research in Practice: A Guide for the Bedside Scientist is a pragmatic guide to understanding, evaluating, and using research in these clinical settings. The text helps the bedside scientist take a study from question, to design, to practice.

Using a reader-friendly approach to a complex subject, the text provides the clinician with the information they need to engage in the research process, and includes real-life research to illustrate the most essential concepts of practice-based research. Clinical Research in Practice is an excellent guide to translating clinical work into an actual research project. In fact, the inside front cover has a flowchart of how to do research and in which chapter to find that step.

There are 11 chapters and a glossary of terms followed by 5 appendices, which include a sample consent form, a survey for a bedside science project, an appraisal of a published research article, a checklist for evaluating a research study, and a bedside science research flowsheet. Each chapter is laid out for the reader to clearly see the objectives of that chapter, an explanation of the content and shadow boxes with real-life examples and responses of bedside nurses.

While the book is intended for hospitals, faculty teaching research in bedside nursing programs will find this most helpful. The book begins to take the fear out of research by talking about it in terms most professional nurses can understand. Directors of professional practice and research will find this book most helpful as they help bedside nurses participate in and/or lead research projects. How prepared are your nurses to even comment on studies that are released and discussed in professional journals, newspapers, and on TV? I don't think this book is all any bedside scientist needs, but it will certainly serve as a valuable resource in their toolkit of clinical research.

YOU The Smart Patient[horizontal ellipsis]An Insider's Handbook for Getting the Best Treatment, by Michael F. Roizen, MD, and Mehment C. Oz, MD, with the Joint Commission and the Joint Commission Resources. New York, Free Press, 2006. 412 pages, soft cover, $14.95.

This book is clearly directed toward patients and their caregivers, although I think anyone in the field of healthcare will find this enjoyable and interesting reading. How the authors arrived at the title pretty much explains how well they can take complex topics and drill them down to a few words and words everyone can understand. As physicians, they noticed a change in patients over the years. In their practice, they met up with 2 kinds of patients. Those who saw them as gods of sort and would do whatever the doctors asked them to do. And then there are patients who ask questions and challenge the doctors, who participated actively in the detective modus operandi of solving healthcare problems. At the end of the day, they would refer to the latter patients with the highly scientific term: Smart Patients. Smart patients not only ask a lot of questions. In the last 10 years, this has been enhanced with the birth of the Internet. They do searches. And instead of "What should I do?" they ask, "Do you think I should?"

The book actually starts with a 40-item questionnaire to test your ability to be a smart patient. While the answers may not surprise a good nurse, it may surprise you about what patients know and do not know. The book then goes into its 10 chapters, followed by the appendices:

1. Getting to Know You (The Juicy Secrets About Who Controls Your Health - You)

2. Finding Dr. Right (How to Find That Gem of a Doctor Who'll Make Your Life Easier and Longer)

3. Let's Play Operation (Insider Tips You'll Need to Safely Sail Through Surgery)

4. Prescription Drugs

5. How to Case a Hospital

6. Have a Happily Humdrum Hospital Stay

7. Why You Should Always Get a Second Opinion

8. Just What Gives You the Right?

9. Considering the Alternatives

10. Take Control of Your Health Insurance

11. Appendices on Medical Jargon, Sample Forms, Living Wills, Power of Attorney, and DNRs

Why should nurse leaders read this book? First of all, these 2 physicians have major exposure to consumers who in turn are reading their books. What patients are reading is of concern to nurses. Secondly, Nursing is the most trusted profession according to the annual Gallop Poll, so your neighbors and family will be reading this and asking you if it is correct. In fact the authors refer smart patients to nurses in several places. For example, they highly recommend emergency department nurse managers as a source of information on who the good doctors are. They even tell the reader how to find the emergency department nurse manager. And finally, when nurses become consumers of healthcare either themselves or through their family, having a simple guideline for questions asked and answered is not a bad idea. Think, what if you are the patient and your spouse, not a nurse, is your advocate. Have a copy of the book handy for your family. The Joint Commission was smart enough to connect with these physicians. Perhaps one of our better nursing writers will connect with them as well.