Work as a nurse for a month. Don't just look at the supposedly all-inclusive job description and think you can suddenly be the judge of their monetary worth. Work a 12 hour night shift and then the 12 hour day shift because the retirement home is short staffed and the first shift nurse is puking her guts out at home and if you don't cover for her there won't be a first shift nurse to take care of your patients. Deal with patients who are literally trying to assault you in the behavioral health unit because they are hallucinating and haven't been taking their medications due to financial restrictions. You work under the "holier-than-thou" doctors who have their nose to the ceiling and couldn't care less that you just worked your ass off trying to do damage control on their patient, who then blame and ridicule you for intruding upon their sacred time even though they are the on-call doctor anyway. You be the case manager for hospice where you are given patients who are GOING TO DIE under your care, where you give them comfort in their final, agonizing days, tell their families that their loved one is declining faster than expected, and go to funeral after funeral for people you grew to love as you watched them die.
Do that, and then tell me nurses aren't worth their weight in gold. I dare you.