Career switch coming??? Any advice

Hello and thank you to all who take time to answer. This is a great forum. I am 36 years old and considering going back to school BSN. I do not have a degree so have to start with just a few previously earned community college credits. My concerns are 1) is there a way to find a program that has actual availability. Most everything I have heard is good luck getting into a program! You can go all the way thru pre req courses and then not get accepted into nursing school 2) i'm hearing that the paperwork is driving many nurses out of the field. can someone shed some light on this? Like is it just the normal fact of life that you do paperwork and people blow this out of proportion? 3) I hear about all these shortages and the national nurses board says job openings for first year students are easy to find and pay an average of 44k per year. Is this accurate?

Any help, advice, warnings and opinions are welcome. You can email me directly if you prefer not to leave a message here. Thank you