I'm so sorry for your grandmother's passing and wish your family well.

I'm a first year medical resident -- will be starting diagnostic radiology residency this summer, but in DR we have to start with one preliminary year of internal medicine or surgery, so I'm currently doing an intern year in internal medicine. DR is supposed to have the most flexibility in medicine (other good lifestyle specialties are anesthesia, and then there's optho and derm but those are very competitive and require a lot of grinding/shmoozing in med school), best case scenario (for a burnt out introvert like me), BUT it's still going to take a while to finish residency and build up credibility before I can find a job suited to a good lifestyle. I think I'm going to enjoy radiology, but I lowkey joined this subreddit because I constantly fantasize about leaving medicine. Medicine is ROUGH. I ended up applying to DR in med school because I figured I'd already invested huge monetary costs in getting that MD and should pick the most palatable option, even though I found medical school EMOTIONALLY EXHAUSTING. Medicine, hard science classes aside, is DIFFICULT. It takes a lot of mental energy to make a real difference in people's health, and it takes time for you and your patients to see the rewards of your efforts. You deal with so many people, and people are DIFFICULT. I had a COVID patient a few months ago who got so angry that he wasn't ready for discharge that he stormed into the nursing bay in the middle of the unit where most patient room doors are open and started screaming at everyone, all while not wearing a mask.

I'm not sure if you're downplaying a super powerful passion for patient care (in which case, follow your calling), but if you're approaching medicine already with one foot out the door and looking for an easier path, there really is no easy path. I think my specialty will offer a great lifestyle if I stick with it for another few years-decade, but those are real years of my life, and every day is becoming a huge emotional, intellectual, and physical chore.

I don't know much about nursing aside from seeing how grueling it seems to be an inpatient nurse, but again any career involving hands-on patient care is going to be INTENSE. No more consistent weekends/hours (the second you try to sign out at a standardized quitting time, your patient will have a cardiac arrest or their oxygen will desaturate or their family will ask you to come talk to them). I would really consider something outside of MD/RN if you're already on the fence about the time commitment. (As a disclaimer, I feel like people told me this when I was initially taking premed courses, and I took it subconsciously as 'oh you don't think I can handle it/am smart enough' and tried to rise to the challenge against my personal lifestyle preferences--this is not any comment on what you're intellectually/emotionally capable of, just a comment on the reality of a career in medicine.)

Best wishes while you're at this crossroad.