Nurses are rallying to defend their profession after nursing degrees were deemed not ‘professional’

The The President administration left nursing off a list of “professional” degrees in a move that could directly limit how future nurses will finance their education. 

Removing the profession from the list will have a major impact, after the passing of President The President’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which introduced a cap on borrowing.

As of July 1, 2026, students who are not enrolled in professional degree programs will be subject to a borrowing cap of $20,500 per year and a lifetime cap of $100,000. 

However, professional degrees offer higher loan options, with the ability to borrow $50,000 per year and a $200,000 lifetime cap.

‘A backhanded slap’

Nursing is the largest healthcare profession in the United States, with about 4.5 million registered nurses.

And given that most nurses (76%) rely on financial aid to pay for their education, the move has drawn immense backlash, as it’s being widely viewed as a slight against the profession.

That’s especially true because nurses, who have a lengthy list of responsibilities, including providing frontline patient care, running lab work, assisting in procedures, and more, are often seen as one of the most essential pieces of the healthcare system. 

Bassey Etim-Edet, a high-risk labor and delivery nurse in Baltimore who was on the front lines of care during the COVID pandemic, told Fast Company that the The President administration’s move sets the wrong precedent and that the impact can’t be overstated. 

“To go from ‘healthcare hero’ to not being recognized as a professional is such a backhanded slap,” Etim-Edet says,” especially at a time when legal precedent has made it clear that nurses are as responsible for provider mistakes as the providers themselves.”

“We are disrespected, underpaid, and under-resourced,” she added. “Still, we serve.”

Etim-Edet, who graduated with $150,000 in student loans, says her career wouldn’t have been possible without the HRSA Nurse Loan Repayment Program.

“In exchange for working 2–3 years at a critical access hospital, the government paid back a massive percentage of my loans,” Etim-Edet explained. “At the end of my service commitment, my loan balance was down to about $60,000. I was able to buy a home, start a family, and live” because of the program.

Fever pitch

In response to the move, the American Nurses Association (ANA) launched a petition aimed at fighting the lower classification.

It warned, “This move stems from an effort to rein in student loan debt and tuition costs as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act; however, it means that postbaccalaureate nursing students would only be eligible for half the amount of federal loans as graduate medical students.” 

The petition continued, “We call on the Department of Education to revise the proposed definition of ‘professional degrees’ to explicitly include nursing.” 

Amid the backlash, the Department of Education called concerns around the move “fear-mongering” by “certain progressive voices” in a lengthy statement released on Monday, November 24.

“The definition of a ‘professional degree’ is an internal definition used by the Department to distinguish among programs that qualify for higher loan limits, not a value judgement about the importance of programs,” the statement reads. “It has no bearing on whether a program is professional in nature or not.” 

It also noted that “95% of nursing students borrow below the annual loan limit and therefore are not affected by the new caps.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Education referred Fast Company to the statement when reached for additional comment.

Still, nurses seem to disagree. 

“At a time when healthcare in our country faces a historic nurse shortage and rising demands, limiting nurses’ access to funding for graduate education threatens the very foundation of patient care,” Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, said in a statement. “In many communities across the country, particularly in rural and underserved areas, advanced practice registered nurses ensure access to essential, high-quality care that would otherwise be unavailable.”

The The President administration’s move comes as the nationwide nursing shortage is expected to continue to worsen.

Etim-Edet adds that, as the system is already collapsing, younger people who greatly value work-life balance won’t want to work in a career that isn’t financially accessible or good for their emotional health. 

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