Nursing No Longer Considered to be "Professional Degree" by Government
According to a new interpretation by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), nursing is no longer considered to be a professional degree. Read on for the details of this exclusion, why it is happening, and what impacts it will have on nursing students and the profession overall.
Nursing Excluded from List of Professional Degrees by DOE
The DOE has excluded nursing as an official professional degree program as it implements the measures surrounding student loans that were passed as part of last spring's "One Big Beautiful Bill" piece of legislation. The decision to strike the profession from this program has caused an uproar throughout the medical community.
Without this designation, students in nursing programs may face lower caps on federal loans. The American Nurses Association (ANA) is weighing in on the decision, saying that limiting the access of funding for graduate education for nurses "threatens the very foundation of patient care."
The change will affect thousands of nursing students in the near future. The new measure will be implemented beginning on July 1, 2026.
According to data from the ANA, there are currently over 260,000 students enrolled in entry-level Bachelor of Science Nursing (BSN) programs. In addition, there are another 42,000 students enrolled in an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN). The primary concern about the change is that the change will lead to a shortage of nurses, affecting health care services all over the country.
As part of the Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill, the Grad PLUS program is being completely eliminated. This is the program that many graduate and professional students leaned on to fund their education. The bill is also capping the amount of money available through the Parent PLUS loans, special loans offered to parents of dependent undergraduate students.
Supporters of the change note that the measures were included in the bill in order to create a "new and simplified" Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP). This program caps annual loans for new borrowers at $20,500 and $50,000 for professional students. However, the DOE recently decided to change the definition of what qualified as a professional program, knocking nursing off that list.
This means that the prospective nursing students will no longer be eligible for the $200,000 aggregate limit in place for other professional students. Students enrolled in graduate programs that are not considered "professional" see loans capped at $20,500 per year and $100,000 overall.
What the DOE Considered to be Professional Degrees
The DOE has designated the fields of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, law, veterinary medicine, optometry, podiatry, theology, clinical psychology, osteopathic medicine, and chiropractic as professional programs. Excluded from the designation were physician assistants, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, and audiologists.
Per the definition, the list is not entirely exhaustive, leaving a bit of wiggle room for interpretation. However, the DOE committee meetings held this fall about student loan regulations only used the designated degrees.
The nursing profession was hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many nurses left the industry during this time, resulting in a historic nurse shortage alongside rising healthcare demands.
Critics of the decision by the DOE say that these numbers will fall further if nursing students are not provided with the same reimbursement for their education as other types of medical professionals. There are also concerns that the nursing degrees were used as stepping stones for many students to pursue careers in organizational leadership, research, and teaching. Without the available funding, there is concern that capacity across the country's nursing programs will be greatly reduced.
Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the AMA, issued a statement reiterating that "nurses make up the largest segment of the health care workforce and the backbone of our nation’s health system." Kennedy said that the AMA urges the DOE to "recognize nursing as the essential profession it is and ensure access to loan programs that make advanced nursing education possible."
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