Dr Hannah Spring

Academic qualifications

• PhD, Leeds University
• Post Graduate Certificate of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, University of Huddersfield
• BA (Hons) Library and Information Studies, Leeds Metropolitan University

Professional memberships

• Member of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP)
• Member of the Health Libraries Group (CILIP)

Précis

• Senior Lecturer – Research and Evidence Based Practice, School of Science, technology and health, York St John University
• Member editorial board Health Information and Libraries Journal (HILJ)
• Editor – Learning and Teaching in Action regular feature of Health Information and Libraries Journal
• Member of Health Information and Libraries for Evaluation and Research (HEALER) network
• Information Manager – RCOMH
• Reviewer – British Journal of Occupational Therapy
• Organising Committee Member for ISHIMR 2015 (International Symposium on Health Information Management Research

Teaching

At York St John I teach on the health-related workforce development and CPD programmes with course leadership for the Advancing Practice programme.  For a larger proportion of my time I work on the occupational therapy undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. I specifically take the lead on subjects relating to research, evidence-based healthcare, and health literacy, alongside a significant arm of research informed teaching focusing on refugees and asylum seekers.  I have written extensively whilst previously the editor of the Learning and Teaching in Action regular feature of the Health Information and Libraries Journal, on a variety of subjects relevant to health related learning and teaching. My specialist teaching areas include:

• Health related information literacy
• Health literacy
• Evidence-based health practice
• Systematic reviews
• Research methods

Professional activities

My recent professional activities include working as the information specialist for a variety of research and health service priority setting projects with organisations such as the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, Social Care Wales, Asthma and Lung UK, Welsh Government, and NHS Ayrshire and Arran.

I have been invited to work as an information specialist for the World Health Organization on the development of operational search filters for the WHO COVID-19 Research Database. I have also worked with multiple rapid review teams at the World Health Organization, developing global policy on a variety of clinical topics.

I regularly work with the Economist Intelligence Unit developing and running search strategies for rapid reviews for health policy development activities. I also work with the Economist on searching for, checking and updating the evidence supporting the NHS health topic web pages.

I have completed horizon scanning work as an information specialist for the charitable organisation Help for Heroes to assess the current and future needs of military veterans.

I have written evidence summaries for the National Institute for Health Research evidence alert service.

I am actively involved in social justice related activities predominantly with refugees and asylum seekers. I have delivered knowledge transfer events related to this and run a community allotment for refugees in York.

Other professional activities

• Member of Research Ethics Committee – School of Technology, Science and Health, York St John University and Chair of module ethics committee for occupational therapy research modules.
• Reviewer for International Journal of Library and Information Science (October 2014 to present).
• External Examiner for Health Information and Health Literacy related PhD submissions - Loughborough University (i-School - School of Business and Economics).
• PhD supervisor within the School of Technology, Science and Health, York St John University.

Previous professional activities

• External examiner for evidence-based practice modules on BSc (Hons) Practice Development, GDip Practice Development, GDip Nursing Practice, BSc (Hons) Nursing Practice at University of Cumbria.
• Chair of the Organising Committee for ISHIMR 2015 (International Symposium on Health Information Management Research).
• Invited visiting professorship at Pacific University Oregon, USA.
• Editor of Learning and Teaching and Action regular feature for the Health Information and Libraries.
• Member of the Research Centre for Occupation and Mental Health (RCOMH) with role of Information Manager – York St John University.
• External examiner for BSc (Hons) in Health and Social Care Informatics University of Derby.
• Member of the Health Information and Libraries for Evaluation and Research Network (HEALER).
• Member of the Allied Health Professions Research and Effectiveness Forum for Yorkshire.
• Therapy Weekly Research Update provider.
• Intute (Nottingham University) Content Provider and Reviewer.
• Member of the editorial board for Therapy Weekly.
• Consultant Research and Health Information Specialist for Fisher Medical Centre, Skipton.

Peer reviewing

• British Journal of Occupational Therapy, London (August 2009 to present).
• Health Information and Libraries Journal (September 2009 to present).
• International Journal of Library and Information Science (October 2014 to present).

Research

My research interests are focused in a number of areas. I have a particular interest in priority setting for research and health service delivery with patient and public involvement. I have worked as an information specialist with organisations such as the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, Social Care Wales, Asthma and Lung UK, and Health and Care Research Wales in conjunction with the James Lind Alliance on research priority setting partnerships. I have also worked with NHS Ayrshire and Arran on identifying priorities for health and care service delivery at home for people with neurological conditions.

I have worked as an information specialist for the World Health Organization on the development of operational search filters for the WHO COVID-19 Research Database.  I have also worked with multiple rapid review teams at the World Health Organization, developing global policy on the following topics:

• Value and Preferences of COVID-19 Patients regarding COVID-19 therapeutics (WHO Methods and Standards Team).
• COVID-19 Testing (WHO Methods and Standards Team).
• Burden of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (for the WHO Value of Vaccines, Economics and Modelling Department).
• HIV and Antiretroviral Therapy – Same Day Start (for the WHO Department of HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and STI’s).
• Modelling for Vaccine Preventable Diseases (for the WHO Value of Vaccines, Economics and Modelling Department).
• Risk Assessment Models and Tools for Global Health Emergencies (for the WHO Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Division; WHO Department for Risk Assessment for Member States).

I have completed horizon scanning work as an information specialist for the charitable organisation Help for Heroes to assess the current and future needs of military veterans.

I have a particular interest in social justice related work and the larger proportion of my work is related to how the experience of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK can be improved. I also run a community allotment in York for sanctuary seekers. There is a research arm attached to this project which often provides opportunities for occupational therapy students at York St John to work with sanctuary seekers in research endeavours.

I have a PhD investigating the priorities and barriers to research development in health librarianship and the relationship between this and evidence-based health practice.

Publications

Books

• Grant, M., Sen, B., Spring, H (eds). (2013). Research, evaluation and audit: ten practical steps to demonstrating your value. London: Facet

Book chapters

• Spring, H. 2014. Health 2.0 and information literacy in rare diseases. In: R. Bali., Bos, L., Gibbons, M., Ibell, S. (eds). Orphan diseases in the age of health 2.0. London: Springer
• Sen, B., Grant, M., Spring H. 2013. What are research, evaluation and audit? In: Grant, M., Sen, B., Spring, H (eds). Research, evaluation and audit: ten practical steps to demonstrating your value. London: Facet
• Spring, H., McCluskey, C. (2013) Building confidence in doing research.  In: Grant, M., Sen, B., Spring, H (eds). Research, evaluation and audit: ten practical steps to demonstrating your value. London: Facet

Theses

• Spring, Hannah (2013) The barriers to and priorities for research development in health librarianship.  PhD thesis.  University of Leeds

Recent journal publications

• Watson, J; Cowan, K; Spring, H; Mac Donnell, J; Unstead-Joss, R. (2021). Identifying research priorities for occupational therapy in the UK: a James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership. British Journal of Occupational Therapy. Published online 29^th June 2021. Available from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03080226211026557
• Spring, H (ed). (2020). Health literacy and COVID-19 (editorial). Health information and libraries journal, 16th July 2020. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hir.12322
• Spring, H., Howlett, F., Connor, C., Alderson, A., Antcliff, J., Dutton, K., Gray, O., Hirst, E., Jabeen, Z., Jamil, M., Mattimoe, S., Waister, S. (2019). The value and meaning of a community drop-in service for asylum seekers and refugees. International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care. January . Available from: https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/IJMHSC-07-2018-0042

Reports and summaries

• Spring, H., Arnott, K. (2025) Executive summary: “It’s just a little slice of life for you”: the value and meaning of outdoor swimming at Peterborough Lido.  York: York St John University 
• Care Inspectorate and NHS Ayrshire & Arran. (2025) Working together to support people living at home with neurological conditions. Available from: https://www.careinspectorate.com/images/documents/7991/Project%20Report%20-%20Working%20together%20to%20support%20people%20living%20at%20home%20with%20neurological%20conditions%20(1).pdf

Blog posts

• Spring, H., Howlett, F. (2024) Our year with sanctuary seekers at the community allotment [Internet]. Available from: https://blog.yorksj.ac.uk/isj/2024/11/04/our-year-with-sanctuary-seekers-at-the-community-allotment/

Recent conferences

Conference proceedings

• Bath, P., Spring, H., Sen, B (2015) Health informatics for enhancing health and well-being. ISHIMR: Proceedings of the seventeenth international symposium for health information management research York, UK 24-26 June 2015.

Conferences

• Spring, H., Howlett, F. (2024). “It’s like hope in a dark room”: Occupational therapy students experiences of participating in Students as Co-Researchers projects with sanctuary seekers [Oral Presentation], Talking About Teaching. 17^th June 2024. York St John University: York
• Spring, H., Howlett, F. (2024). Ethical challenges in qualitative research with sanctuary seekers [Oral Presentation], The Only Way is Ethics. 22^nd March 2024. York St John University: York
• Spring, H., Charura, D., Howlett, F., Smith, P. (2022). An exploration of practice-based evidence and the lived integration experiences of asylum seekers and refugees: a qualitative investigation [Oral Presentation], We All Share the Same Sky: healing through creativity, knowledge sharing and conversations with refugees and asylum seekers. 24^th June 2022. York St John University: York
• Watson, J., Ward, G., Mac Donnell, J., Cowan, K., Spring, H., Unstead-Joss, R. (2021) Identifying research priorities to support the profession’s resilience [Oral Presentation], European Network of Occupational Therapy in Higher Education (ENOTHE), 15^th October 2022. Online Presentation
• Spring, H., Howlett, F. (2021) Building resilience through occupation with people seeking sanctuary [Group Symposium] European Network of Occupational Therapy in Higher Education (ENOTHE), 9^th September 2021. Online Presentation
• Spring, H., Howlett, F. (2019) Developing occupational therapy curricula for meaningful practice with asylum seekers and refugees [Workshop]. European Network of Occupational Therapy in Higher Education (ENOTHE), 18^th October 2019. Royal Olympic Hotel: Athens
• Spring, H., Howlett, F., Tufton, M. (2019) Working with asylum seekers and refugees in research: the experience of participating in a SCoRe project [Oral Presentation]. RCOT North and Yorkshire Region Student Conference, 13^th June 2019. Teesside University: Middlesbrough
• Spring, H., Howlett, F., Nicholls, R. (2018) A critical exploration of women experiencing occupation-focussed activity groups whilst seeking asylum in the UK [Oral Presentation]. Talking about teaching conference, 26th June 2018. York St John University: York
• Spring, H., Howlett, F., Connor, C. (2018) The value and meaning of a community centre service for refugees and asylum seekers: culture, collectivism and application for occupational therapy practice [Oral Presentation]. World Federation of Occupational Therapists, 22nd May 2018, Cape Town International Convention Centre: Cape Town, South Africa