31-07-2025
A growing movement of ‘nursineers' blends tech and medicine to fix healthcare from the inside
When someone asks Garett Craig what he does for a living, the answer usually raises eyebrows.
'Nursineer' is the clever portmanteau Craig, a 27-year-old Canonsburg resident, has coined to describe his dual role as both nurse and engineer. It's his way of explaining a career that doesn't yet have a standard title, but he's leading the way to change that.
Craig had no plans to become a nurse when he began studying biomedical engineering at Duquesne University in 2016. However, when he was offered the chance to earn a dual degree in nursing and engineering in exchange for an extra 18 months of coursework, he took a leap of faith, betting the added education would benefit his future career.
'I'm the oldest in my family, and I was always looked at as the support person and someone that everyone relied on,' Craig told 'Healthcare was that perfect role [for me], because you have patients that are relying on you to be an advocate for them and to make the best decision for what their needs are.'
After graduating in 2022, Craig worked as an artificial heart engineer for healthcare giant UPMC, supporting patients with LVADs, or mechanical pump implants used to assist a failing heart. That hands-on experience, combined with his current role as an application consultant for medical equipment company Brainlab, revealed a healthcare gap that Craig is now determined to bridge: the disconnect between clinical needs and the tools engineers design to meet them.
'[Engineers] don't take into consideration the nurse on a midnight shift who's burnt out, or the patient who comes in and throws the [medical device] against the wall that wasn't durable enough to be dropped,' Craig said. 'That's a scenario they've never considered because they've never been through it.'
Now, Craig is spreading the word about this hybrid role, speaking with universities, attending Pittsburgh's weekly life sciences meetup BioBreakfast and connecting with fellow nurse-engineers. He hopes to bring nursineering into the mainstream, making it easier for medical tech to align with the real-world needs of hospital staff.
'It really doesn't matter to me what it's called,' Craig said. 'It just matters to me that there's someone who is a nurse and an engineer and is doing work with both of these backgrounds to improve all facets of healthcare areas.'
In this edition of How I Got Here series, Craig talks about his passion for nursineering, the day-to-day realities of his job and why he's trying to build a community of people who share this hybrid skill set.
This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
Why are you passionate about nursineering?
I typically say nursing is my purpose and engineering is my process.
Nursing gave me the reason why I'm doing this project, why I'm making this device, why I am spending all this time and stress and sleepless nights. Nursing gave me the why, and that was because of the patients.
Engineering gives me the process. Just being an engineer, I wouldn't have the connection and the understanding of these patients and what they're going through. With engineering, you're more focused on the product, the materials, the science and making it work. You don't get a lot of exposure to mental health, understanding what actually goes on in healthcare and the process that people go through to have a procedure done. There's so much more involved that you just don't get with engineering that nursing gave me.
With that differing view, it really allows me to find empathy and connect with the patients or hospital staff.
What does a typical day look like for you?
No day is the same for me. A typical week could be: On Monday, I might do an admin day where I'm catching up on paperwork, submitting different forms for purchases or problems and emailing clients we work with, along with accounts, physicians and specialists within Brainlab, for questions, concerns and product feedback.
Then on Tuesday, I might be going into the hospital to repair something broken. I might be walking in with the biomed teams, the surgeons, the coordinators, whoever would be involved, and just figuring out what went on, what happened, what needs to be fixed. That's more of the technical side of my role, installs, repairs, updates, trainings.
Wednesday might be a meeting with some surgeons about potentially purchasing a new system. Now I'm wearing my sales hat, working with them, their purchasing teams and logistics teams, figuring out how we can get this to work. Thursday and Friday, I might be doing actual cases — that's my clinical side — lending support in the operating room during the procedure, helping the surgeon with the equipment, making sure everything is running smoothly and finding ways to optimize the products for them.
Then on top of all that, I'm going to conferences, helping with setup, pitching new products and doing demos for surgeons, residents and med students. It's almost like three jobs in one. It constantly changes, and no week is the same. But for those who like being busy, doing things and working with many different people, it's a great fit.
What advice would you give to someone breaking into the field?
Say yes to everything and just figure it out later. It's a lot to manage, and you have to be organized and on top of things, but when you find something you like and just take those opportunities as they come, life can be truly one of those, 'I can't believe this is real, pinch me,' kind of feelings.
How do you like to spend your free time?
When I'm not doing my day job and trying to make this nurse engineer role a thing, I race vintage Formula cars. I like the fast pace, balancing all sorts of things at once and the chaoticness of being behind the wheel of a car.
I'm also a student pilot. It kind of goes hand in hand. There are a lot of technical things involved and it's very detail-oriented, like the job that I have. And I'm a volunteer firefighter. The firefighting alone is truly amazing. You don't know it until you see it.
If I'm not racing cars, flying planes or firefighting, I always take on new projects. I hate being comfortable. I like to be constantly growing and feeling stimulated, like there's something that's going to happen. I always say I want to feel like I'm at the beginning of a really good movie where you don't know what's going to happen. It's the adventure that really makes me wake up in the morning and function.
What's next for you and nursineering?
I want to develop a community or an association of nurse engineers. I want to put faces and names to this idea, make it a reality and start a new movement of clinically trained but also technically comfortable individuals who can walk into a hospital, instantly pick up on everything and start making change.
I've been in contact with different universities to come in and start talking with students about this. There are universities other than Duquesne that are starting these dual degrees and combining nursing with other technical fields. My ultimate goal is to make this a movement and really see change.
