Rate My Professor Brett Mitchell

Professor Brett Mitchell is an Honorary Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Newcastle. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the Australian Catholic University and a Master of Advanced Practice from Griffith University. Mitchell possesses extensive clinical experience in acute medicine, infectious diseases, cardiology, medical admissions, public health, and nurse immunisation across hospital and non-hospital settings in Australia and the United Kingdom. His career includes roles such as Senior Nurse Manager at North Glamorgan NHS Trust (2006-2007), Assistant Director of Nursing in Public and Environmental Health at the Department of Health and Human Services Tasmania (2008-2013), Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Tasmania (2012-2013), and Professor of Nursing at Avondale College (2017-2019). Currently, he serves as Editor-in-Chief of the international peer-reviewed journal Infection, Disease and Health, a position he has held since 2013. Mitchell has led nursing teams, research teams, and infection prevention and control programs, contributing to numerous committees including Chair of the NHMRC Infection Control Guidelines Committee (2018), National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce Guideline Leadership Group (2020), and Infection Control Expert Group for the Australian Government Department of Health (2020).

Mitchell's research focuses on infection prevention and control, particularly preventing healthcare-associated infections such as urinary tract infections, pneumonia, bloodstream infections, gastrointestinal infections, and those associated with multi-resistant organisms and prosthetics. His work addresses antimicrobial resistance, environmental cleaning, hospital hygiene, and the cost-effectiveness of infection control measures. He has authored books including Healthcare-Associated Infections in Australia (2024, with R.Z. Shaban, P.L. Russo, D. Macbeth), Epidemiology of Healthcare-Associated Infections in Australia (2021, with R.Z. Shaban, P.L. Russo, D. Macbeth), and Cleaning and Decontamination of the Healthcare Environment (2019, with L. Hall). Mitchell has published over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles and delivered invited presentations at international conferences. His contributions have earned him the Member of the Order of Australia (2024), induction into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame (2023), Commonwealth Health Ministers Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research (2022), NHMRC Peter Doherty Award (2021), and Research Australia Health Services Researcher of the Year (2021). He is a Fellow of the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control and the Australian College of Nursing.