I do understand what you mean, I say the same thing about medicine. I sometimes think no job will be what you expected. The public always highlights the best part of every job. How many pilots work a max of 20 hours (and I mean total time away from home as the general public thinks it is) a week and make $125,000 yearly, Probably about as many Respiratory Care Practioners that make $115,000 or whatever they've published it to be now. Oh yeah and the great rewards of helping people, excellent benefits, job security, and my personal favorite the "Great Respect" you get from patients. Kinda sounds similiar to what is believed about airline pilots. The reality of a Respiratory career is your patients can't breathe and therefore are grumpy and upset and expect miracles and when you can't immediately "fix" their problem guess what, your suddenly incompetent, don't know what your doing or whatever smart remark they come at you with. Another personal favorite is people that have ruined their lungs and require oxygen 24/7 and don't want to "drag the tube" everywhere and don't understand why you can't give them a pill to fix it, well I've got a better idea since were dreamin why don't I just put you on a network and wi-fi O2 to you then. Just an honest reality of healthcare: excellent benefits sure thats why my er and Dr visit co-pay are more than most people, job security thats why I've been laid off twice in my few years and respect well I won't say anymore about that. I'm just over 7 days of 12 hour shifts that are always closer to 15 and coming in everyday to see how many nurses wrote you up and hearing "didn't you get the memo about it" I'm sure I did with the other 10 new memos. I've read your guys posts for a while and know aviation isn't perfect but I have always noticed one thing, you guys help each other and respect each other more than any other profession I know. Go to the healthcare forums and see what happens if you ask a question, a war will start between nurses, x-ray, lab and other depts telling you why they're more important. You guys have respect for each other and as long as you have that you'll always be look up to for it. Thanks for all the advice and if anyone is in the area and wants to work with an amateur sometime just give me a shout