Research She Wrote

Senior scientist Joanna Bokovoy, R.N., Dr.PH, grew up asking questions. Now her new book helps caregivers find answers.

The villager arrived by wheelbarrow, in dire need of medical care. Three days earlier, he had been shot while sitting in his hut in Ethiopia. Alex Bokovoy, M.D., an adventurous missionary surgeon and the only doctor within an area of two million people, gave him care. He then told the patient’s story to his young daughter, Joni Bokovoy, at the dinner table.

“Even as a child, she loved hearing about medicine,” says her father, who also cared for other unusual cases: people who were speared, fell from trees or suffered from parasitic diseases. “No child in America would ever experience the types of things we saw in Ethiopia.”

Today, Joni Bokovoy’s natural curiosity about medicine inspires her to help bedside clinicians become researchers. It also inspired her latest adventure—co-writing a book on clinical research with well-known researcher Janet Houser, Ph.D., R.N.

The book, called Clinical Research in Practice: A Guide for the Bedside Scientist, includes stories from LVHHN clinicians who performed successful research. One example: a study that’s evaluating if foot massage reduces anxiety in cancer patients. “I owe my colleagues a debt of gratitude,” says Bokovoy, who is director of health care research. She is also part of the team that created the Bedside Scientist Institute, a “school within our hospital” where bedside clinicians learn research.

Writing the book wasn’t a simple task. Bokovoy and Houser (whom Bokovoy met while working on a research project) first wrote a sample chapter, conducted a market analysis and found a publisher. “The publisher wanted to release the book to coincide with another book by (respected health care researcher) Tim Porter-O’Grady,” she says. “That meant we had just about 100 days to write our book.”

Bokovoy devoted weekday evenings and Sundays to writing. “I’d write a draft, throw in some wash and write some more,” she says. To meet the publisher’s deadline, she gave herself mini-deadlines and submitted her introduction, five chapters and vignettes on time. Her commitment paid off on March 29 when she received the first copy of her book in the mail.

“My whole life I saw my father doing what was best for his patients,” she says. “To think this book could play a part in inspiring clinicians to conduct research and help patients the same way is very rewarding.”

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