<---20 years male RN.
The downside:
Imagine for one moment working with ugly 40-50 year old divorced women who all have their period on the same schedule. Run Forrest Run!!!
Nurses typically top out in their salary range within 10 years of starting practice. This is not typical in other career fields.
The supply/demand curve that controls your salary is artificially manipulated by hospitals & regulatory agencies. I just read an article about how the UK is facing a severe nursing shortage because the US plans to suck the world dry of RN's by 2020 to care for our aging population. The real salary for nurses (adjusted for inflation) has been dropping for decades because of this manipulation.
Big minus is shift work, I'm currently working nights/weekends and have no social life... Imagine trying to parent/get laid & working nights, evenings weekends...
Ever wipe sh1t off someone for 8-12 hours a day?
Imagine changing an adult diaper with a full load.
Ever get bitten by a demented alzheimer's patient?
Do you think you can see a naked 500 lb woman dead while you're doing CPR on her & ever get it up again?
The risk of contracting HIV, hepatitis C & every other freaking bug that comes along is very real.
If there is a biological terrorist attack, health care workers will be the first to die after the initial outbreak.
Some hospitals are very political, imagine blurting out the word fvck during the period all the 40-65 year old women are all on the rag or in the midst of a divorce from one of the losers nurses tend to marry.
Imagine taking care of a patient in a vegatative state who you think should be dead or have the plug pulled...
Positive::
Steady salary, fairly secure employment.
Helping people.
