Back to school!?

SW and nursing are two entirely different professions -each with their own scope of practice and frames of reference. There is sort of a hybrid... Medical Social Worker. They mainly work in hospital settings - closely aligned with Case Management. You need to take a look at salaries before you make a final decision. You may be very surprised at how low SW salaries are despite the fact that MSW is pretty much the entry level. Their burnout rate is even higher than nursing.

I know that some folks here have strong opinions about the role of salary as a motivator, but it is a reality. Choosing to focus your career on working with "underprivileged" is certainly a noble calling, but this will also mean that you will NEVER make very much money. The only service area with decent salaries is health care - because they must provide competitive salaries to employ clinicians. The farther you get from clinical care, the worse your salary will be. In the US (Darwinian, e.g., if you're poor it's your own danged fault) social systems, there is very little funding in this area and I doubt whether it will change in my lifetime.