The Department of Education’s newly proposed loan policy change—which excludes nursing from the definition of “professional degree” programs—is more than a bureaucratic oversight. It devalues the largest, most trusted segment of our nation’s healthcare workforce and jeopardizes the pipeline of future nurses who are already struggling to afford the cost of advanced education.
The American Nurses Association (ANA) is sounding the alarm with a clear and sobering statement:
Excluding nursing from professional degree classification threatens our capacity to educate, recruit, and retain the nurses this country desperately needs. This move directly impacts federal loan eligibility and forgiveness programs that countless nurses have relied on to pursue advanced degrees. Without that support, the financial burden of graduate nursing education becomes unsustainable for many.
Cutting off funding for nurses seeking graduate degrees doesn’t just affect hospitals or clinics—it affects entire communities. It affects schools, where children with complex medical needs depend on nurses with advanced training. It affects rural and underserved towns, where advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are often the only providers available. It affects every American family that counts on safe, expert, compassionate care.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) statement explains the proposed change in classification of an advanced nursing degree:
AACN is deeply concerned by the Department of Education’s decision to move forward with a proposed definition of professional degree programs that excludes nursing and significantly limits student loan access. Despite broad recognition of the complexity, rigor, and necessity of post-baccalaureate nursing education, the Department’s proposal defines professional programs so narrowly that nursing, the nation’s largest healthcare profession, remains excluded. Should this proposal be finalized, the impact on our already-challenged nursing workforce would be devastating.
Nursing is not a technical trade. It is a professional discipline that demands rigorous education, clinical expertise, and ethical accountability. The Department of Education’s attempt to reclassify nursing undercuts the intellectual and professional foundation that has earned nurses a seat at decision-making tables in healthcare systems, public health, and policy.
This proposed change also threatens broader equity efforts in nursing. Many nurses pursuing higher education come from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. They already shoulder substantial debt and face barriers in navigating a system that undervalues their work. Limiting access to loan programs compounds these inequities and deters future generations from entering a profession already at a breaking point.
The message this policy sends is chilling: that nursing is somehow less professional, less valuable, and less deserving of investment than other fields like law or medicine. Yet, when disaster strikes, nurses are always among the first to respond—whether in hospitals, schools, community clinics, or public health emergencies.
It’s time for the Department of Education to listen—to nurses, to professional associations, to the communities we serve. The ANA and AACN messages are clear: advanced nursing education must remain classified as a professional degree. Anything less erodes the future of the healthcare workforce and insults the expertise that keeps our nation healthy.
Nursing is, and always will be, a profession. The Department of Education must correct course before this short-sighted policy does lasting harm.
Call to Action: If you are a nurse, healthcare professional, or advocate for safe, quality care, raise your voice now. Contact your congressional representatives and the Department of Education. Demand that nursing be recognized as the essential profession it is, with full access to loan forgiveness and funding programs necessary to sustain and grow our workforce. Our future—and the health of every community—depends on it.
The Department of Education is expected to release a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the coming weeks related to the definition of professional degree programs. This NPRM will provide stakeholders, including nursing organizations formal opportunities to submit comments and influence the final rule.
-
Watch for the NPRM publication and review the proposal carefully when it is released by the Department of Education.
-
Submit thoughtful public comments during the comment period supporting recognition of nursing as a professional degree.
-
Contact your congressional representatives and urge them to support maintaining nursing’s professional degree status to safeguard the future of advanced nursing education and patient care access.
Share on Social Media:
Discover more from The Relentless School Nurse
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
And the hits just keep on coming. Thank you Robi n for highlighting this
Hi Meg, Seriously, no more hits to nurses, we will let the DOE know where we stand on nursing as a profession.
This proposal is disgraceful, disrespectful, and shows total lack of understanding of the professional nurse’s education, level of skill and preparation. If passed, it will exacerbate the nursing shortage at a time when the demand is already higher than the supply. I hope all nursing organizations, as well as individual nurses, use their voice to “educate” the Department of Education and our elected leaders.
Thank you for sharing your important comments, Sandi. You are right, It is our time to “educate” the U.S. Dept of Education and show the strength of more than 4 million nurses when we are discounted and underestimated.
If I have learned one thing, the education system has no idea what nurses do, the care gaps they fill, or the relentless support of aiding all in their health. Targeting nursing specifically from higher education will in turn only add to the continuing healthcare crisis. Nurses are critical to the infrastructure of healthcare, and society as a whole, and their knowledge and skill far surpasses that of nearly any other degreed career. Nurses are crucial to improving overall health, wellness, and are definitively crucial to support catastrophic events. The inability to seek a degree in nursing is an attack on America’s healthcare in its whole. The failures of the Federal Government should not further burden the broken systemic death care business model of healthcare we face as a nation. Nurses are frontline providers whose responses are directly linked to improving outcomes, and their formative education prepares them to meet the needs of a broad spectrum of service industries. They can perform research and represent change agents who want to improve the lives and health of others. Without a degree supporting the very education they are required to receive for licensure is asinine to the well-being of every American and quite frankly decimates the true value nurses bring to care for everyone, every day. Nurses specifically are the real backbone of healthcare. While the Federal Education system churns out degrees that do not have such an intimate and vital capacity to society, nurses are there everyday and representing a solid educational background and testing knowledge to deliver safe and effective care. They should in turn re evaluate the value of advancing education for nurses who have a stronger foundation than nearly any other degree holder and certainly a greater impact to society. The education systematically has for years attempted to deny nurses the quality and equity compared to other degrees. Nurses deserve better and our future absolutely is dependent upon receiving the educational resources to continue to provide the best care for all.
Thank you for this powerful message of support! I appreciate your thoughtful response, great to have feedback from a fellow school nurse. We know the complicated scope of our practice and its impact on the health and wellbeing of our students and school communities.
This situation has NOTHING TO DO with education!! It is TOTALLY about the people running the department of education NEEDING TO PULL THEIR COLLECTIVE HEADS OUT OF THEIR A$$E$….