APS2024: Annual Scientific Meeting Travel Grant Recipient Report

Monique Wilson

Monique is a third year PhD candidate with the Persistent Pain Research Group at the University of South Australia. Her work is centred around improving the clinical implementation of pain science education. She also works clinically as a musculoskeletal physiotherapist.

Author contact details: monique.wilson@mymail.unisa.edu.au

Barriers To the Clinical Implementation of Pain Science Education in Australian Private Physiotherapy Practice

The APS travel grant gave me the opportunity to travel from Adelaide to Darwin to attend the 2024 APS Annual Scientific Meeting, marking the second time that I had attended this wonderful national conference. On arrival to Darwin, it was so lovely to see familiar faces and to reconnect with individuals that I had the pleasure of meeting the previous year in Canberra. Building on these connections really helped strengthen networks and pave the way for potential collaborations in the future. The number one thing I love about the APS conference is its welcoming and inclusive atmosphere!    

I had a bit of a busier conference schedule this year which I was excited about. On the first day, I had the privilege of chairing a topical session on partnering with consumers in meaningful and respectful ways. Coordinating a group of speakers, helping facilitate an interactive activity, and overseeing question time was a great experience for me given I had not done this before. I then had the opportunity to present some of my own work as part of a Free Paper session. I presented a subset of findings from a nationwide online survey of Australian private practice physiotherapists, where we explored the barriers to the clinical implementation of pain science education (PSE). The findings identified an array of barriers, including patients’ lack of expectation for PSE as part of their physiotherapy treatment (suggesting the need to amplify patient awareness of PSE as a fundamental component of pain management) and that less clinical experience was associated with heightened apprehension for using PSE (highlighting the need for targeted training to equip newer physiotherapists with clinical skills to manage PSE optimally and confidently). This was my first time presenting at a conference, so despite some initial nerves, I was really pleased with how I spoke and was overwhelmed by how supportive and engaged the audience was. I found the question time very beneficial, prompting me to think on my feet and consider my work from many different perspectives.

Given the diverse array of work presented at this conference, I always leave the APS conference feeling very inspired and motivated. I loved the opening plenary from Dr Charlotte Elder, who shared powerful messages about the sex and gender disparities in pain. I also found the topical session on grant writing very useful and felt I could leave this session which quite a few takeaways to use in the future. As someone who is in the early stages of their research journey, the Trainee session was also beneficial. I loved that this session was run in a more informal manner, giving us quality time with experienced researchers to fire questions their way.

With a heap of data collection currently underway, I am looking forward to hopefully having the opportunity to present more of my work at the APS Annual Scientific Meeting 2025 in Melbourne. I am very excited to see Professor Tamar Pincus as a keynote speaker, as I visited her lab in the UK in August. See you next year!

Declaration: Monique Wilson receives support from the Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.