They become nurses because it's a relatively easy (two years at a CC) to become an RN, and the pay is pretty good.

It's easy on the body, compared to similar paid blue collar jobs, like union construction. And it seems better than office work.

Durning the AIDS crisis a lot of nurses--who could quit did. They quit because many were legitmetly scared.

Hospitals got worried, and told their marketing departments to throw out the word, "We need nurses!". Most smaller hospitals had a hard time keeping qualified egos (The Medical Doctor), and they couldn't be bothered besides doing just the bare minimum.

Let's not forget their are many classifications of nurses (RN, LVN, etc., and porely trained Candy Stripers, or cheap help, hospitals (especially union controlled) use instead of nurses. Some are not porely trained though, but nursing unions don't like competition. I'm not berating unions. Moneynot spent on help seems to go to administrators anyway.)

(I went to school with nursing students. Most were divorced. Most were around mid 30's. This was in the 90's. Now nursing is a good path to middleclass for immigrants.)