Why nursing?, Part 1

I have a wide range of interests and aptitudes in more than one area. Of all the options available to me, why did I choose to go into the nursing field? In no particular order, I'm going to talk about some of the factors that led me to my decision.

Job demand:

The Bureau of Health Professions at the Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, reports that the US will be short over 1 million RN FTEs by 2020 (scroll down to the bottom of the table for the total), which will mean that projected supply will meet only 64% of 2020's demand.

The picture locally in Oregon is even more stark (see state-by-state breakdowns in the same tables): by 2010, they project that Oregon will be short 5,300 nurses, with 81% of demand filled; in 2015 we'll be down 10,000 nurses at 68% coverage; by 2020, the state will be in need of 15,300 additional nurses and will have only 56% of its needs covered.

This shortage will ensure that for the forseeable future, I shouldn't have any trouble at all with finding a job as an R.N. One downside to this shortage, though, is that it will likely force a larger burden of patient care on nurses that are today often already feeling overworked and underpaid. I imagine this will lead to increasing and increasingly contentious policy confrontations between health care employers and nursing organizations such as unions.
Though these facts do have this negative aspect, overall I'm looking forward to ample job security and the knowledge that with training in such a high-demand field, I will be very valuable to my employer and that I can lend a hand with one of the great health care challenges on the current horizon.