Nursing is no longer considered a ‘professional degree’ by Trump administration under new bill

(Gray News) – Nursing has been excluded as a “professional degree” by the Trump administration as the Department of Education prepares to make massive cuts to providing student loans.
The details are laid out in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
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Under this bill, only “professional degree” students will be eligible for the higher loan limit of $200,000, while graduate students are capped at $100,000, Newsweek reports.
In the bill, the Department of Education classifies the following degree programs as “professional”:
Medicine
Pharmacy
Dentistry
Optometry
Law
Veterinary medicine
Osteopathic medicine
Podiatry
Chiropractic
Theology
Clinical psychology
Noticeably absent from the list are nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and physical therapists.
A report from nurse.org said, “In simple terms, becoming an advanced practice nurse just got harder and more expensive. Graduate nursing students, already burdened with high tuition, will lose financial benefits reserved for professional degree programs.”
The move has sparked uproar among nurses and nursing students.
The American Nurses Association warned that limiting student nurses’ access to funding “threatens the very foundation of patient care.” This is because more students may choose not to pursue a degree in nursing if they can’t get the student loans they need, thus leading to a drop in the number of nurses in the country.
“We urge the Department of Education to recognize nursing as the essential profession it is and ensure access to loan programs that make advanced nursing education possible,” the American Nurses Association said.