Making the most of opportunities

When asked to contribute to the Making My Mark series, my immediate response was to agree. Once I had done so, I began to wonder what sort of mark I have actually made. For inspiration, I looked back at previous papers in the series, to establish where, in the grand scheme of things, my contribution to nursing and healthcare research might lie. I found papers written by both highly experienced and internationally known researchers and by those just starting out on a research career. My position lies somewhere between these two, and if I can borrow a term coined by a research collaborator, Dr Jeremy Segrott, University of Wales Swansea School of Health Care, I would describe myself as a 'midiphyte' (someone with postgraduate training and hands-on research experience, but who has yet to become a totally independent and self-supporting researcher). To borrow a term from another colleague, I also see myself as something of a 'butterfly'; someone who is still defining a clear research niche and who has engaged with a number of different projects as the need or opportunity has arisen.