Germanna student Emma Ross of Spotsylvania laughs at a quip from Dr. Robert Harry during GCC's second annual Nursing Idol event, attended by a crowd of 400 on Friday, March 30, 2012.

The intellectual competition required students to demonstrate knowledge of diagnostic tests, medications and nursing interventions--including those necessary for psychological problems. Students had to think quickly on their feet, competing under pressure in front of a crowd of 350 of their GCC peers and 50 Germanna faculty members.

 “I was skeptical at first,” said Dr. Harry, Chairman of the Physician Quality Management Committee at Mary Washington Hospital and a former surgeon at MWH who has been one of the judges both years. Since 2004, he has taught as an adjunct faculty member in GCC’s Virtual Hospital. “But the students have done an outstanding job. I didn’t know what to expect the first year. But it gives them a forum in which they can show off their clinical and analytical skills instead of just regurgitating back what they’ve learned from textbooks.”

Dean of Nursing Mary Gilkey hopes to expand the competition to include other VCCS schools in 2013.