No, it couldn't, salaries are higher and fully-loaded costs significantly higher. Further, there is a massive nurse shortage, the idea there are nurses out there waiting to be hired is absolutely not true.
Maybe where you live, first year nurses here would gladly take 50K just to start paying off their university costs.
Edit: if the hospitals won't hire them directly, they can also go to a contract nursing agency and start working in eg. home care (which oddly enough pays more than working at a hospital)
That $50K/yr salary nurse is probably costing the hospital $75K/yr or more all-in. (That's what GP meant when they said "fully loaded".)
For context, New York Presbyterian employs over 20,000 people including 6,500 doctors.