Nursing and Access to Care?

I thought I would ask this to see what those of you currently in nursing think of this. I am ready to apply to nursing school as a second career but I have been interested in the healthcare field since I was in college --I just regret that no one really mentioned nursing as a career back then (15 years ago) or I would have gone right into it. Anyway, I like the fact that you are taking care of people when they are sick and make them better as well as helping to make their stay in your unit as good as it can be when they are in need of treatment and are scared. Having said that, my second reason for wanting to go into nursing is that I also think about the changes in healthcare over the next several years and wondered if any of you feel that being a nurse, or having someone in your family in the medical field, is an advantage when it comes to care. I thought that having a nursing background allows you to know the procedures that are being done/need to be done for a family member or yourself, knowing the doctors and staff that may be taking care of you if you are sick or diagnosed with an illness, if family members are hurt/sick, you know the treatment to take care of them quickly and get them to a hospital if necessary instead of being helpless to help them. Is this true for the future in your opinion or am I wrong?