Staff profiles
Dr Hilary Piercy
BSc (Hons) MA, PhD, RGN, RM
Phone 0114 225 5704
E-mail h.piercy@shu.ac.uk
Hilary joined Sheffield Hallam University in September 2007 from the University of Sheffield. She graduated from University of Sheffield with a degree in Genetics (first class honours) in 1991. She completed her MA from University of Sheffield in 1995 and was awarded her PhD from University of Sheffield in 2005.
She works as a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing where she contributes primarily to the undergraduate programme. Additionally she contributes to the Masters programme in International Travel Health and supervises masters and doctoral students. She is also a research co-ordinator for nursing and midwifery.
Her clinical, teaching and research interests and experience centre round the field of sexual and reproductive health. She was programme leader for a range of post registration sexual and reproductive health courses at the University of Sheffield and continues to practice in this clinical field.
Her research has largely used qualitative methodologies to explore aspects of sexual health and service provision from the perspective of the individual, situating those experiences within an interpersonal, social and cultural context. In her Masters dissertation this addressed the experiences of disabled women as users of mainstream sexual health services whilst her PhD dissertation adopted a grounded theory approach to explore the individualised experiences of dealing with genital chlamydial infection.
Hilary is currently pursuing her research interests around interprofessional sexual health service provision and the wider public health agenda.
Research outputs: key publications since 2001
Journal articles
Piercy H and Hayter M (2008) School nurse management of children's questions when they are involved in primary school sex education: an exploratory study. Primary Health Care Research and Development. 9: 75-84
Hayter, M, Piercy H, Massey, M and Gregory, T. (2008) School Nurses and sex education: surveillance and disciplinary practices in primary schools. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 61 (3): 273-281
Piercy, H (2006). The importance of contextualisation in giving a diagnosis of genital chlamydial infection; findings from a qualitative study. Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care 32 (4): 227-230
Piercy, H (2006) 'It feels good to be told that I'm all clear': patient perceptions of re-testing following genital chlamydial infection. Sexually Transmitted Infections 82: 330-333
Piercy, H and Hargate (2004) Social Research on the Under 16's: A Consideration of the Issues from a UK Perspective. Journal of Child Health Care 8 (4): 253-262
Book chapters
Piercy H. (2008) An uncertain future: Considering the possibility of infertility as a result of chlamydial infection, in Deery R and Hunter B (2008) A labour of Love: emotion work in reproductive and maternal care. London, Palgrave. In press
Piercy, H (2006)''I just feel really dirty': Sexually Transmitted Infections and Dirt. In Kirkham, M (ed) (2006) Exploring the dirty side of women's health. Abingdon, Routledge
Conference presentations
Piercy, H 'Boys have peanuts': - delivering and evaluating effective Primary School Sex Education. East meets West: International conference on Sexual Health care. Cha-am, Thailand, February 2006 (invited speaker)
Piercy, H 'Some are bigger than others': the cause and effect of a hierarchical structure in sexually transmitted infections'. Dealing with difference. Anglo-Australian seminar series. Darwin, July 2005 (Invited speaker)
Piercy, H and Haynes, G. (2005) Delivering effective primary school sex education. Cultural aspects of Sex/Sexuality Education. Institute of Education, London May 2005
Piercy, H 'I just feel so dirty': dealing with the impact of a spoiled identity. 'Let's talk about Sex': One day multi disciplinary conference, Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Trust. 30 November 2004
Piercy, H. An uncertain future: considering the possibility of infertility as a result of chlamydial infection. 'A labour of love? Emotion work and reproduction'. University of Huddersfield. 15-16 September 2005
Piercy H Hierarchy paper Sociology of health conference York September 2005
Piercy, H 'It feels good to be told that I'm all clear': Patient perceptions of retesting following genital chlamydial infection. Autumn scientific meeting of East Midlands branch of British Association of Sexual Health and HIV. Nottingham 18 September 2004
Piercy, H (2004) 'I just feel really dirty': Women's responses to a diagnosis of chlamydial infection. 'Pollution and Safety: Exploring the 'dirty' side of women's health'. University of Sheffield 14-15 June 2004
Infection risk in relation to genital chlamydial infection: a professional and personal perspective. 'Facing the future: Sexual health and HIV nursing in Europe'. 24-27 March, 2004. Malta.
Piercy, H and Haynes, G (2004) Coherent, Comprehensive and Continuous: Developing a curriculum for Effective Sex and Relationships Education in an average English suburban primary school. 'East meets West: International conference on Sexual Health care'. 6-11 Feb 2004, Thailand
