Donald J. Trump's Big, Hideous Bill contains a doozy. The Department of Education has excluded nursing from professional degree programs. A lot of what is in that travesty of a bill is a slap in the face of Americans, but I didn't think they'd take a shot at nurses, too, who were deemed "essential workers" when the COVID pandemic hit. And there is already a significant nursing shortage. This move will influence how much reimbursement a student receives for their higher education.
Via Blavity:
Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” changed the definition of what is considered a professional program, as well as the eligibility to receive up to $200,000 in student loans, according to Newsweek. The Department of Education will now only consider these fields as professional programs: medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry, law, veterinary medicine, osteopathic medicine, podiatry, chiropractic, theology and clinical psychology.
It means that physician assistants, nurse practitioners, physical therapists and audiologists are excluded from this list. They will no longer have access to the same student loans as they did before.
Via Nurse.org:
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. This could deter prospective students, especially those from underrepresented or economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Leading nursing organizations also say the move could lower the application and graduation rates of RNs, as all graduate nursing programs first require graduation from an RN program. While some RNs may go into school with the intent of furthering their education, not all do, and many may choose to work at the bedside in the interim or to gain experience.
Without the ability to feel like they have a future in nursing, some prospective students may opt to choose a different career altogether.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing is "alarmed," and released a statement.
"Excluding nursing from the definition of professional degree programs disregards decades of progress toward parity across the health professions and contradicts the Department’s own acknowledgment that professional programs are those leading to licensure and direct practice," the statement reads. "AACN recognizes that explicitly including post-baccalaureate nursing education as professional is essential for strengthening the nation’s healthcare workforce, supporting the next generation of nurses, and ultimately supporting the healthcare of patients in communities across the country."
And we should be alarmed, too. With Joe Biden, debt forgiveness was a focus. With Trump, dismantling the Department of Education and smacking around health professionals, is his focus. Limiting nurses' access to funding for graduate education tracks for this sadistic administration.
