After performing pop rock country tunes on a bright stage surrounded by tens of thousands of screaming fans, Jason Marks should be able to perform clinical rotations with a steady hand.

“It was very exciting and more fun than I’ve had in a long time,” says Marks with a slight Southern drawl. Marks, who attends Cape Fear Community College (CFCC) in Wilmington, N.C., has been a practicing musician for several years and has been playing with his current band mates for about six months. He’s combined the passions by creating a scholarship for fellow CFCC students. And this summer, at the Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek in Raleigh, his hard work paid off.

“Jason Marks and the Band,” which Marks describes as pop-rock with a country twist, won a contest put on by a Raleigh radio station. The prize? To open for a crowd of 20,000 on August 23 as part of Kenny Chesney’s “Pirates and Poets” tour.

Marks says that opening for Kenny Chesney was, in a word, intoxicating. “I love being in nursing school, but I really love being on stage in front of a large crowd,” he says. “I was just so overwhelmed.”

The performance went smoothly, but as he belted the tunes, Marks was well aware of the big act to follow: “I was nervous and kept wondering, ‘When’s Kenny coming out?’”

When he bowed to applause and exited the stage following the act, he realized not all of CFCC had been aware of his upcoming debut. “From the time I walked on stage until I walked off, I got over 200 text message from people who’d had no idea I was playing,” says Marks. “I signed a few autographs the following Monday at school.”

After the concert, Marks and his fellow band members were able hang out at after parties and meet briefly with Chesney. “I talked to him for about 15 seconds,” says Marks with a laugh. “Of course, he had a million people meeting him, so I didn’t monopolize his time too much.”

Although he’s been playing music for several years, Marks contemplated the steps to take in his professional career: “I asked myself, ‘What can I do that I can make a really good living helping people?’” The question led him to nursing, and with only 10 months left until he graduates, he’s working toward his ultimate goal of pediatric oncology.

One of the best things about being a professional musician, says Marks, is the flexibility it gives him to pursue his nursing goal. “Music gives me a lot more freedom to go back to school,” he says. “You don’t have to work Monday through Friday. It’s a blessing in that respect.”

He also counts himself blessed to be playing music with a great group of guys. “I feel really comfortable with the guys in the band,” says Marks. “It’s kind of the same thing in the healthcare setting: you have a team of people you’re working with and you can trust them. It boosts your confidence in the same respect. Everyone knows what they’re supposed to do.”

With two CDs under his belt (the first titled “Whiskey Would Be Risky” and the second called “Slow Down”), Marks continues to follow his two chosen paths. He plans to start work on a third CD this November or December. Part of the proceeds from CD sales on iTunes go to benefit the Singing Nurse Scholarship fund at Marks’ college, which he created at CFCC to help ease the financial burden of the school’s nursing students.

“With the nursing shortage, we’re just trying to help as many people as possible,” says Marks. “We’ve got some single mothers there with two or three kids who are getting help financially. It’s amazing how they do it, and what little I can donate will hopefully make a big difference.”

Editor’s note: To learn more about Jason Marks and his nursing/music endeavors, visit his Web site at www.jason-marks.com. And for more on musical nurses, take a trip back in the Stressed Out Nurses archives.