All those things are very true from most folks perspective. The pay can be very good, but the rewards and sense of caring and helpfulness can only be derived from your own perspective. It sounds like you have a good, positive perspective.
For me nursing is what I am all about. It's not just a job for me. But more to the point of your question, I don't like having to accomodate the administration's idea of how serious my patients health status is. I don't like having to bust my butt taking care of 3-4 critical patients in an Intensive care unit while wearing the hat of secretary, charge nurse, case manager, pharmacist, CNA, housekeeping, and security guard all at once because the people who live in offices and drive Mercedes to work everyday can't come up with enough money to hire adequate staffing for the hospital, but they always manage a nice Christmas bonus for themselves.
Yes, I have had to work shifts without a charge nurse, secretary, or tech, because they cannot come up with adequate staffing. It can get pretty rough in the ICU when you have 21 patients, 12 on vents, no tech or secretary, and only 6 nurses - including the charge nurse. The patients really can't get adequate care and the staff can just forget about eating or bathroom breaks for 12 hours.
Related to being male, I don't like the assumption that I will always be available to leave the care of my own patients in order to do all the heavy lifting, or leaving the unit to respond to all the Code Gray calls (security incidents), or being called a Male Nurse as if it was somehow a different profession. I don't like being made unwelcome on the L&D floor, despite a multitude of male physicians wandering around. I'll never be a nurse mid-wife, but somehow I feel that isn't really an option for me anyway. I don't like the pervasive gender bias in nursing that remains despite many years of progressive civil rights awareness. It is getting better every year though.
I don't believe that most new grads quit within a year. I'd like to see the documentation on that statistic. As far as I know all the people I graduated with are still working in nursing, except for one guy who injured his shoulder while lifting someone else's patient. He left the profession on disability.
Some doctors are disrespectul towards nurses. Some plumbers are disrespectful towards nurses also. I believe that if the disrespectful doctors became plumbers they would still be disrespectful. In other words, you cannot expect a respectful attitude from everyone you meet in life. I don't expect anything, therefore I am never disappointed.
I have learned that if you treat physicians with the respect that you would like then they will usually reciprocate. If they remain disrespectful then it's not my problem. I don't take it personally. I just feel bad for the people they live with. Then I laugh about it. A LOT.
I love nursing. I wish I had done it many years before I did. There are so many positive things about it that I forget about all the negativity that people invent. It's the best thing that I have ever done. The questions you asked are fair, but please don't forget that there isn't a perfect profession out there. As long as you have people involved there will be both bad and good, and nursing is a people oriented profession.
If you remain positive and refuse to listen to the rotten apples then you will love nursing. There are good days and bad days, but in the end I find it very worthwhile. Don't ever stop learning, join a nursing organization and get involved. It's very worthwhile.