{"id":98080,"date":"2026-04-02T04:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/?p=98080"},"modified":"2026-04-06T09:44:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:44:29","slug":"combat-medic-turns-student-instructor-for-pre-med-peers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/04_02_2026\/combat-medic-turns-student-instructor-for-pre-med-peers","title":{"rendered":"Combat Medic Turns Student Instructor for Pre-Med Peers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spencer Holsinger\u2019s pathway into the medical field began with a compromise for his military career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to come in as a combat role, like infantry or something. My mom asked me not to. She said, \u2018Do something where you use your skills.\u2019 So, I thought, I’ll be a medic,\u201d said Holsinger, a senior studying health sciences at UToledo.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait

A senior in health sciences, Spencer Holsinger draws on 16 years of U.S. Army experience to run hands-on clinical skills clinics for fellow undergraduates.<\/p><\/div>\n

Over two tours of duty in Afghanistan, Holsinger experienced the realities of combat medicine firsthand. He was later assigned to the Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) on Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, where he worked in the emergency room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did in fact get to go into combat and I did in fact go to a hospital and get all this extra cool training. So, by the end, everybody was happy,\u201d Holsinger said.<\/p>\n

While serving at BAMC, Holsinger said he discovered a deeper love for medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was this very nice, very new resident who wasn’t sure what to do. God bless him, he’s probably a great doctor now, but I stepped in and did it,\u201d Holsinger said of a time a patient was at risk of bleeding out. \u201cIt’s not the first time I’ve done something like that, but it was the first time I thought, Wow, I’m in this ER, and compared to a lot of people here, I have no formal training and yet here I am running this trauma. \u201cI thought, \u2018I can do this too.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, from that day I swore I’d make it happen,\u201d he added. \u201cI’m here trying to realize that.\u201d<\/p>\n

After 16 years of service in the U.S. Army, Holsinger transitioned to the Army Reserves to move closer to home and attend college. He now serves as a Detachment Sergeant in the 948th Forward Resuscitative Surgical Detachment. The Sylvania Northview High School graduate said UToledo was his top choice as a Yellow Ribbon school that also offered opportunities through its medical school.<\/p>\n

\u201cRubbing elbows with a lot of those people, trying to get a sense for what specialty I want to go into, I’m hoping the environment gives me a lot of opportunities to not only learn from them but also share what I know,\u201d Holsinger said.<\/p>\n

Early on, he overheard other pre-health students being invited to a suture clinic, and he decided to attend as well. Before he knew it, Holsinger was guiding his peers in the clinic as much as the instructor.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany pre-health students are eager to share advice about coursework, applications or the MCAT. However, it is exceptionally rare to find an undergraduate with the depth of clinical experience, technical competency, and instructional ability that Holsinger brings to our center,\u201d said Deborah Hendricks, director of the UToledo Pre-Health Advising Center. \u201cHis background gives him a level of readiness in first-responder and procedure-based skills that most students simply have not yet had the opportunity to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now as a pre-health student ambassador, Holsinger is independently organizing hands-on skills workshops in suturing, intubation and Stop the Bleed for undergraduate students \u2014 opportunities most undergrads won\u2019t experience regularly until much later in their training.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a belief that if you know something, you should teach it. And if you have the ability to do something, you have the responsibility to do it,\u201d Holsinger said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpencer has become an integral part of our team. His ability to build community while teaching complex skills creates an environment where pre-health students feel supported, capable and excited about their future careers,\u201d Hendricks said. \u201cWatching him empower fellow Rockets is exactly the kind of leadership we strive to cultivate, which is why he was an easy choice for a student spotlight.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the suture and airway clinics are intended to give pre-med students early hands-on experience, Holsinger opens the Stop the Bleed clinics to everyone on campus. He believes that knowledge of bleeding control should be as universal as CPR.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrauma casualty statistics say if somebody had just put on a tourniquet, held pressure, used pressure, whatever skill we’re talking about \u2014 if they had just held pressure for 5 minutes, then these people would have been alive,\u201d Holsinger said.<\/p>\n

PHAC Hands-on Healthcare Skills Clinics are open to all UToledo students looking for more opportunities for experiential learning. Students can find and RSVP for the events in Invonet<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Portrait<\/a>

A senior in health sciences, Spencer Holsinger draws on 16 years of U.S. Army experience to run hands-on clinical skills clinics for fellow undergraduates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":932,"featured_media":98081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,61,71,7,54],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/932"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98080"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98083,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98080\/revisions\/98083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}