In this week's episode, Prof Brett Mitchell talks to Daniela Karanfilovska. Daniela is an infection prevention nurse at Alfred Health in Melbourne. She led a paper published recently in the Journal of Hospital Infection in which a Delphi method was used to create an assessment tool that can be used to assess the preventability of healthcare-associated bloodstream infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus. The tools also outlines potential action. The paper can be found here https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(21)00223-1/fulltext.

The Delphi technique uses a repeated survey approach where the opinions of experts can be used to refine and develop a consensus as to elements that should form part of the tool under development. Other papers that have used this method or a modified version include:

• Williams, C. K. and H. Carnahan (2013). "Development and validation of tools for assessing use of personal protective equipment in health care." Am J Infect Control 41(1): 28-32.