Why should you read my PhD thesis?

As part of any PhD program, candidates need to perform research and present their work in a huge final document called a thesis (in Ireland and the UK) or dissertation (in the US and some parts of the EU).

Given that this document comprises at least 4 full years of research, these documents are always more than a hundred pages long. Most of them are 200 to 300 pages, including appendices and reference lists.

As a doctoral student, I read several PhD theses because (1) they were fascinating to read, and (2) they were directly relevant to my own research on adolescent nonspecific persistent back pain treatment.

But why would you, a busy clinician, want to read my thesis?

May I humbly suggest three reasons:

1. You are a clinician who sees either adults or adolescents with chronic or persistent back pain. You’re busy, and you know that reading hundreds of academic papers, and finding the papers specific to your needs, takes many, many hours. I have already done all that searching and reading and written a concise snapshot of the entire field in Chapter 1!
   
2. You are a clinician who is frustrated by some aspect of the treatment landscape for either adults or adolescents with chronic or persistent back pain, and you want to know you are not the problem. Guess what: You’re not the problem! There are a lot of gaps between clinical education on persistent back pain, research, and available treatment. I overview those gaps and what can be done about them, specifically in Chapters 1 and 6.
   
3. You are a clinician who sees adolescents with chronic or persistent back pain, and you find it challenging to truly help your young patients and their families. You’ll want to check out Chapters 4, 5, and 6. You’ll find that the challenges you face are common, and that ever-so-slowly solutions are emerging.
   

I hope I’ve convinced you to take a peek at this document, of which I am very proud (and which you can download from the University of Limerick repository by clicking the cover image in this post).

Of course, research is happening all over the world every day that could make the findings of my own publications obsolete in 10 or 20 years.

But for now, I hope you will emerge from your reading with a greater understanding of the current problems at hand and feeling a little better about potential solutions.

Remember that as a clinician, you have great power to impact the lives of your patients, both young and not-so-young. My current work as a trainer of clinical communication in pain treatment is designed to directly address the gaps my PhD research identified.

Click on this title page to download the thesis.