Move would exclude nurses from higher limit loans for graduate degrees

National Nurses United, the country’s largest union of registered nurses, condemns the Trump administration’s proposed plan to exclude graduate nursing students from professional loans, which have higher limits than those for other graduate students. This is an attack on the nursing profession. 

H.R. 1, which passed in July, Trump’s bill that slashed Medicaid and SNAP benefits to give tax breaks to billionaires, also included changes to student loan programs. This would affect nurses who are pursuing graduate degrees to be nurse practitioners, certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNA), or other positions requiring an advanced degree. They would not be eligible for loans at the higher limits allowed only for the Department of Education’s (DOE) specific list of professions. Graduate students pursuing a so-called professional degree are eligible for more than twice as much funding for each academic year and twice as much total funding than graduate nursing students. It is an insult to nurses, the most trusted profession in the nation.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) currently provide much-needed primary care, particularly in rural and underserved areas. If this rule went into effect, it could have a major impact on nurses’ access to graduate nursing programs. In addition, this proposed rule change would make it more difficult to find nursing faculty with advanced degrees to teach in nursing programs.

If the Trump administration truly wanted to support nurses, it would be working to improve working conditions, expand education opportunities, and ensure patients can get health care. Instead, this administration is stripping VA nurses of their union rights, making education harder to access, and cutting health care for those who need it most. H.R. 1 is a cruel piece of legislation that will have disastrous consequences for the most vulnerable in our communities. Millions will lose access to health care. Meanwhile, the rich will get richer.

NNU is also concerned how this could contribute to the nationwide nurse staffing crisis, commonly and mistakenly called a nursing shortage. The hospital industry has created a staffing crisis by refusing to staff hospitals appropriately and creating conditions that are unsafe for patients and nurses. There is a nurse retention crisis. Based on available data from the US BLS on employment and National Council of State Boards of Nursing on licenses, there is reason to believe over a million actively licensed RNs are not working at the bedside.

Shutting down nurses’ access to resources to seek higher education will only further contribute to forces driving nurses away from the bedside.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.