If nurses had lower up-front costs for their own training, I could imagine that allowing lower wages without them being worse off financially.

If we hand-wave away a lot of other market dynamics, I'm guessing.

CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistants) have low up-front training costs, but don't make a lot of money: an average of $19/hr [1]. So at least some of the less skilled work is being done with economic efficiency.

[1] https://nursa.com/salary/cna

Larger supply leads to lower prices, if demand stays flat.