By Caitlin Jones
Caitlin Jones is a postdoctoral research associate at the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health, the University of Sydney. Her research focus is investigating high-risk interventions for musculoskeletal pain that lack a supportive evidence base.
I have been going to Australian Pain Society (APS) conferences since the first year of my PhD, drawn in by the opportunity to mingle with people from diverse pain fields with diverse perspectives. The world of clinical musculoskeletal research, particularly back pain, is reasonably small and so I value the chance to hear from people who work in the different part of the research spectrum. I had heard of painSTAR through my APS connections, but didn’t really know what it entailed. I hoped it would be a small group of early career researchers, getting to know each other and each other’s work, being mentored by world class teachers, learning relevant concrete skills, expanding my network, and opening my eyes to the breadth of possibilities in pain research. It turns out, painSTAR was exactly that.
What I enjoyed most about painSTAR was that it was a small enough group that we got to know each other. It was on a different level to a typical conference where you might chat with a new person over a coffee for a few moments. This was four days of connecting over our shared interests, learning from each other (from both the other attendees and the expert faculty). I particularly enjoyed learning about basic research, as that has felt completely inaccessible to me as a clinical researcher who knows NOTHING about it. Now I feel like I know just enough to strike up a conversation with a basic scientist and have a chat about how we can complement each other’s work.
Attending painSTAR has already changed my work by changing my mindset. My sense of where my career could go and how broad my collaborations could be feels at least three times as big as it was before. I have also already used the practical skills I learnt about research communication during my presentations since. That’s another benefit of the small group – that we got each got to get up and present our work and receive feedback from experts and the wider group. The feedback was directly relevant and immediately actionable.
I am looking forward to the APS conference in Melbourne because I can’t wait to catch up with the people I met at painSTAR. I feel more solidly a part of the APS community. I would highly recommend painSTAR to anyone who is in the early stages of a career in pain research and wants to improve their science communication, expand their network, feel inspired, and spend time among a community of warm and interesting people in a beautiful location.
Declaration
Caitlin Jones has nothing to declare.
Australian Pain Society 