Trump administration excludes nursing from professional degrees

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes several cuts to educational funding. The law caps undergraduate loans and eliminates the GRAD PLUS loan program for graduate and professional students. Instead, the law created a "new and simplified" Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), which allows graduate students to borrow a maximum of $100,000 and professional students to borrow a maximum of $200,000.

Currently, the Department of Education categorizes the following programs as professional:

Notably, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, physical therapists, and audiologists are excluded from the list. The loan changes, as well as overall adjustments to finances and funding for higher education, will go into effect on July 1, 2026.

Commentary

Several nursing organizations and experts have spoken out about nursing's exclusion from the list of professional degree programs, saying that it will make it harder for graduate nursing students to complete their education and could decrease the application and graduation rates of RNs.

In a statement, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing said it is "deeply concerned" by the exclusion of nursing in the Department of Education's proposed definition of professional degree programs, and that if the proposal is finalized, "the impact on our already-challenged nursing workforce would be devastating."

The Department of Education has pushed back on these criticisms, saying that nursing has never been part of the list of professional degrees.

"The Department has had a consistent definition of what constitutes a professional degree for decades and the consensus-based language aligns with this historical precedent," said Ellen Keast, the department's press secretary for higher education. "The committee, which included institutions of higher education, agreed on the definition that we will put forward in a proposed rule. We're not surprised that some institutions are crying wolf over regulations that never existed because their unlimited tuition ride on the taxpayer dime is over."

Mary Turner, president of National Nurses United, said the Trump administration's priorities were "at odds with the needs of nurses and patients."

"If the Trump administration truly wanted to support nurses, it would be working to improve working conditions, expanding education opportunities, and ensuring patients can get health care," Turner said. "Instead, this administration is stripping nurses of their union rights, making education harder to access, and cutting health care for those who need it most."

The implications for nursing students (and healthcare as a whole)

By Anne Schmidt, Ali Knight, and Monica Westhead

The exclusion of nursing as a professional degree by the U.S. Department of Education feels like yet another blow to a workforce that faces ongoing struggles. However, nursing will not be the only profession impacted; all disciplines of healthcare, including physicians, physical therapists, public health workers, and more, will struggle with the consequences of new federal loan caps.

Short-term impacts

Loan caps will fall dramatically for these now "nonprofessional" fields. Many students may not be able to afford education costs, and programs may shrink as a result.

Fortunately, the exclusion of nursing as a professional degree won't impact access to funding for undergraduate bachelor's or associate degrees in healthcare-related fields, which are the entry-level degrees to practice as a registered nurse.  

Long‑term impacts

The proposed changes to federal loans will have significant effects across the industry. We may see a decline in the workforce across fields that already face critical shortages. Access to healthcare and mental health services, as well as educational quality, may decline, especially in rural and underserved areas. Workforce reductions will deepen inequity and jeopardize the stability of entire communities.

Physicians, whose borrowing cap falls below the average cost of medical school, will be particularly affected by these proposed changes.

Consequences will also be visible in nursing, where exclusion from the federal definition of "professional degrees" under OBBBA threatens the pipeline of advanced practice clinicians. By capping federal graduate nursing loans at $100,000 and eliminating Grad PLUS loans, the pathway to advanced nursing education could become financially inaccessible for many, weakening the workforce pipelines and destabilizing care delivery.

The restriction jeopardizes the nurse practitioner (NP) pipeline at a time when physician retirements are accelerating and shortages are projected in 31 of 35 specialties, including primary care, pediatrics, OB/GYN, and geriatrics.^1,2 Without a strong NP pipeline, healthcare leaders will face widening access gaps, particularly in rural and underserved communities where NPs are often the backbone of care delivery.

The implications may also extend beyond clinical practice to the faculty pipeline, which has long been fragile. Graduate education is the prerequisite for faculty roles, yet reduced loan access may deter doctoral candidates, exacerbating shortages of qualified instructors and professors.^3,4 This can create a cascading effect: fewer faculty, fewer students, fewer advanced practice clinicians.

Physician associates (PAs) will also likely  be affected by these loan caps, as their graduate programs require substantial financial investment. Like nurses, PAs play a critical role in expanding access to primary care and specialty services, particularly in underserved areas. Limiting loan access for PA students risks weakening their pipeline, compounding shortages of advanced practice providers, and further straining the health system's ability to meet demand.

Lists matter: They shape how the public understands professions, and leaving NPs and PAs out of the "professional" definition reinforces outdated views that diminish their authority in leadership, collaboration, and innovation.

5 action steps

Nursing, NP, and PA programs should be recognized as professional degrees to restore equitable access to federal loans and scholarships, sustain NP and PA pipelines, and preserve alignment with global workforce standards.

Healthcare leaders should advocate for recognition, strengthen workforce planning models to fortify all professional pipelines, and expand care models that leverage NPs and PAs in partnership with physicians to meet community needs. Without nurses, NPs, PAs, and faculty, health systems cannot deliver safe, equitable, and timely care.

Organizations should safeguard workforce sustainability by focusing on five priorities:

• Impact analysis: Understand how loan caps affect pipelines for nursing, PA, and allied health roles.
• Workforce planning: Build strategies for recruitment, retention, and succession to prevent shortages. Providing nurses with career growth opportunities beyond advanced degrees can also help promote retention and offer nurses new ways to develop their skills.
• Operational efficiency: Reduce cognitive strain through workflow redesign and technology integration.
• Staff well-being: Reinforce with your teams that this change in definition does not diminish their roles as nurses, physical therapists, PAs, and other healthcare professionals. Embed mental health resources and resilience programs to combat burnout and other causes of discontent within the healthcare workforce.
• Innovation: Expand telehealth, team-based care, and predictive workforce models to meet demand.