Rate My Professor Jean Hay-Smith

Jean Hay-Smith is Professor of Rehabilitation in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, serving as Academic Lead of the Rehabilitation Teaching and Research Unit. Originally a physiotherapist, she completed a Master's degree with research on painful sex after childbirth and earned her PhD in 2003 from the University of Otago's Department of Women's and Children's Health during a three-year Health Research Council Training Fellowship. Upon completing her doctorate, she returned to an academic position combining research, teaching, and service, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014, and no longer holds a practising certificate as a physiotherapist. She maintains ongoing research collaborations and supervises postgraduate students in the Department of Women's and Children's Health.

Hay-Smith's research specializations encompass pelvic floor muscle training for urinary incontinence and dyspareunia following childbirth, conservative continence management, supporting behaviour change in rehabilitation settings, interprofessional teamwork, and research methodologies including systematic reviews, meta-analyses, randomised controlled trials, observational studies, qualitative approaches such as interpretative description and reflexive thematic analysis, co-design, and implementation research. She teaches REHB 701 Rehabilitation Principles and HASC 701 Working in Interprofessional Clinical Teams, alongside postgraduate thesis supervision. Key publications include Cochrane systematic reviews such as 'Pelvic floor muscle training for prevention and treatment of urinary and faecal incontinence in antenatal and postnatal women' (Woodley et al., 2017), 'Comparisons of approaches to pelvic floor muscle training for urinary incontinence in women' (Hay-Smith et al., 2024), 'Feedback or biofeedback to augment pelvic floor muscle training for urinary incontinence in women' (Herderschee et al., 2011), and contributions to the Fourth International Consultation on Incontinence (Abrams et al., 2010). Recent works address pelvic floor symptoms in exercising women, value elicitation in stroke rehabilitation, and chronic pain experiences among Indigenous peoples. Her scholarship has shaped evidence-based practices in rehabilitation and women's pelvic health.