For many people, the secret to success isn’t working harder, it’s living better. This mantra remains true for Devin C., an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) specialist at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Between traveling around the world and partaking in freelance photography and videography projects, Devin has been able to maintain a healthy work-life balance while making a difference in the lives of the patients who need his expertise the most at UPMC.
Devin initially considered a pre-med track while exploring various medical professions; however, he ultimately determined that nursing aligned best with his personal goals and lifestyle. “I ended up going into nursing because it offered the autonomy where you are working with physicians in a critical environment and managing patients at a high-level — without having to go through medical school,” Devin explained. “I enrolled in the UPMC Shadyside School of Nursing in 2007, graduated in 2009, and was hired by UPMC shortly after. I was in a pediatric nursing role for 10 years and floated around to different units where they needed additional help.”
Although Devin began as a pediatric nurse and gained experience in many different units of the hospital, his transition into becoming an ECMO specialist gave him the opportunity to pursue a new career path that he didn’t know much about prior to his career in nursing. “I stepped into a role as a bedside nurse where I assisted the ECMO team and monitored the patient’s pump. After three or four years of that, the opportunity arose when I asked the director of the department if I could get additional hands-on training to develop my skills in the unit to better assist the specialists that I was working with at the time. That is when I stepped into my current role.”
Being an ECMO specialist has given Devin the opportunity to work in a role that many people don’t know about, which always poses a unique challenge for him to inspire others to get into the field, as well. “When I tell people my job title, a majority of the time people have no clue what I do, which can serve as a great learning opportunity,” Devin shared. “ECMO, at its core, is basically a heart (or sometimes lung) bypass. Any time one of those organs is actively failing, we put the patient on a pump which will perform the function of that organ. Many of the patients that I care for are waiting for a heart transplant or have just gotten out of a major surgery where these organs need a rest, so the pump will take over and do the work for them while they recover.”
While working as an ECMO specialist, Devin has also taken advantage of autonomy and work-life balance to embark on journeys all over the globe while simultaneously pursuing other passions outside of his job at UPMC.
“My interests and passions outside of nursing are photography, videography, world travel and volunteering. It initially started as a way for me to share my journeys with friends and family (before Facebook was a thing) and it turned into something that I really enjoy where I can archive my travel and look back on all the places that I have been and the people I have met. My favorite places to travel are Nepal, India, and Peru,” Devin shared.
“The freelance aspect of my work began mostly when I was climbing in very rural areas and remote mountains, where a lot of companies are looking for that type of photography, and I would capture content for them. Over time, with the internet, video and photography have evolved from long-form to short-form, so I have gotten more into videography. I prefer videography more now, because I appreciate being able to take someone through a whole journey where they can feel the emotion of what I capture.”
Devin has used his photography and videography skills for more than just sharing his travels with friends and family. He fuses his hobbies with his passion for helping patients by facilitating large-scale live simulations and participating in the creation of educational conferences for medical professionals across the globe, in collaboration with UPMC. “My focus on producing educational content with UPMC is to create content that draws people in and makes them truly want to immerse themselves in learning,” Devin shared. “Typically, I will approach the physicians with a project and say, ‘What do we need to learn and what are we trying to accomplish?’ and from there we will work to build something that will draw people in and be interested in the work we are trying to highlight.”
With Devin’s help and expertise, UPMC has been able to help educate countless medical professionals from all over the world. Because of his dedication to these educational conferences and the work that he does on a day-to-day basis on his unit, Devin was named a 2024 ACES award winner. The ACES award is UPMC’s most prestigious recognition, given to less than 1% of employees annually, and honors employees who exemplify UPMC’s five core values: Quality & Safety, Dignity & Respect, Caring & Listening, Responsibility & Integrity, and Excellence & Innovation.
“At the end of the day, I’m just doing my job while also getting to pursue my passions in a different way that benefits the hospital and other medical professionals,” Devin shared.
