I am an L&D nurse, 15 yrs experience and I am facing same decision. I agree with your pro's and con's list. I recently google'd some informatics job listings and was shocked to find that they appear to want IT people who incidently have a nursing license rather than a good nurse who can do informatics. At least that is the impression i got. I would love to hear from anyone in the field ... any feedback. I start classes to work towards my MSN Nursing Informatics end of this month. Feeling a little overwhelmed and worried that I would have to work in an IT department (huge pay cut) for a number of years to make the degree pay off.