My wife is a nurse. She's been doing it now for about 5 years. The first half of that was spent wiping geriatric butts, this last half has been in pre-op. Let's just say that the grass is always greener on the other side. It's nice that she can get a job wherever we go, with relative ease, but the pay isn't as great as everyone makes it out to be. Here are my "insights" into the nursing profession...
Pay. I don't know where all of you get your info, but for a regular 4-year degreed RN, it still isn't that great. Livable, definitely, but not the greatest. Right now my wife is making the most she's ever made, roughly $50K, working in downtown PHX. She could make quite a bit more if she entered the nursing pool, but that provides no benefits, and with me finishing up ratings right now, we need those benefits. So if you can get by without the bennies, the pay can be good. If not, it's livable at best (if you have a family). Specialties will obviously pay more, but how much more is the question. I think my wife would love to be a CRNA, but that involves more school, which won't work with my current income ($0).
Management. The hospitals are businesses, and as such their goal is to improve the bottom line. My wife's boss consistently sends people home early in order to comply with managements wishes for lower costs. My wife's last paycheck was for 69 hours over a two week period, during which there were no holidays. Her normal shift would be 80 hours over two weeks. She can't even get full-time hours because her boss keeps sending everyone home early. This last week she's been fighting to stay for as long as possible so she can help out our bottom line. This was also the case at her first hospital. I don't quite understand hospital management - they'll send home a full-time nurse who makes $28 an hour, but have no problem paying a travel nurse almost $50 an hour to do the job of the LPN who, if she was full-time, would be making about $20 an hour. I know I don't have all of the cost breakdowns to look at, but they sure would be interesting to see.
Anyway, Bell47, good luck on the career change.