Alumni Success Story - Trevor Holsinger, Allied Health/Pre-Nursing Class of 2009 from Preble Shawnee
02/12/2021
You must start with the end in mind! I always tried to focus on the future, choosing classes that would challenge me and that I knew would benefit my future healthcare career. These were the more difficult college credit classes. You do not have to be the smartest person in your class, but you do have to be willing to work hard! You will reap what you sow.
I chose to go to MVCTC during my junior and senior years and graduated in 2009. This was a tough decision because I was deeply involved in athletics at Preble Shawnee. But as a first-generation college student who would have to pay his own way through college, the relationship that MVCTC had with Sinclair Community College was hard to ignore.
After high school graduation, I began classes at Sinclair on track to complete their nursing program and at the same time applied for any possible healthcare position within a hospital setting. After nine months of being denied job after job (not having experience), I finally got a food-service position delivering meals at Miami Valley Hospital. Obviously, this was not my goal to be in nutrition services, but this got my foot in the door, and after seven months, I was able to transfer to a patient care tech position.
My advice to current students is to find your WHY!! If you do not have one, find one! This is what will keep you driven when things get hard, and they will get hard.
Here is my WHY: after the 1st year of prerequisites, I entered the nursing program. Within the 1st few weeks, my right lung completely collapsed, and I was hospitalized for about a week. After five days in the hospital, I could catch back up and finish out the quarter of school. On Christmas break, my right lung collapsed a 2nd time, and it was a blessing because I needed surgery, which would give me the time off I needed to heal. With this laparoscopic surgery, I was hospitalized another seven days and had a smooth recovery. I returned to school in January, and on the 1st day back (my 1st clinical rotation day), my right lung collapsed a third time. I was admitted to the hospital again for an even more extensive open surgery called a thoracotomy. (Open-heart surgery occurs through a sternotomy, but a thoracotomy occurs on the side between the ribs).
This experience as a patient was the most significant confirmation of my career track! Being able to empathize with patients is far more valuable than anything you will ever be taught in school, and it will allow you to connect with people in a much deeper way!
Being a PCT while completing my nursing degree was a fantastic way to figure out where I wanted to work when I was finished. I was drawn to the unit where I spent most of my time as a patient. I spoke with the manager about a year before I graduated, and she held a nursing position for me for about six months.
While working full-time, gaining experience as a bedside nurse on a surgical step-down unit, I was also completing online classes for my bachelor of science in nursing. After about two years, I transferred from that unit to the heart and vascular ICU. After about a year of working in the ICU, I began learning how to recover open-heart patients and other specialty one-on-one patients. The challenge of these patients and the in-depth learning and teaching that I gained by working more closely with doctors and surgeons more deeply solidified my desire to returned to graduate school.
I applied and was accepted to nurse anesthesia school at Texas Wesleyan University. This program was 2 ½ years long and was the most challenging accomplishment I have ever completed. Anesthesia school will test and expose weaknesses in your life that you never knew you had. The sacrifice is great, but I will say that God never gives you more than you can handle, and if you are willing to put forth the trust, time, and effort in whatever it is you are facing, you will be blessed!"
Learn more about the MVCTC PrNursing Program at http://www.mvctc.com/future-students/programs/pn.
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