Dive Brief:
- A bipartisan group of lawmakers is advocating for the U.S. Department of Education to classify graduate nursing degrees as “professional degrees” in response to potential regulatory language that would place a lower limit on how much advanced nursing students could borrow.
- Under a proposed framework, advanced nursing programs would be classified as “graduate degrees” rather than “professional degrees,” which would cap student loans for new nursing borrowers at $100,000 total, rather than the higher limit of $200,000 that will be in place for professional programs.
- In a letter sent to Education Under Secretary Nicholas Kent on Friday, lawmakers said the framework could exacerbate an existing worker shortage in the industry. “At a time when our nation is facing a health care shortage, especially in primary care, now is not the time to cut off the student pipeline to these programs,” the letter said.
Dive Insight:
This summer, Republicans passed a massive spending package that will cap graduate student loans to $100,000 for most programs but $200,000 for professional degrees. The Education Department recently brought higher education stakeholders for a process known as negotiated rulemaking to determine which programs would qualify as professional degrees, and they reached consensus on regulatory language that would exclude nursing.
The letter, signed by over 100 lawmakers and led by Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Reps. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., and Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., argues the proposed changes would undermine the “largest health care workforce in the United States.”
Under the changes, students would receive higher borrowing limits — $50,000 annually — for pursuing degrees like Doctors of Pharmacy, Dentistry, Medicine and Clinical Psychology that are deemed professional.
Students pursuing other advanced nursing degrees like Masters of Science in Nursing, Doctors of Nursing Practice and Doctors of Philosophy in Nursing would be subject to lower aid borrowing limits of $20,500 annually or $100,000 in total.
The Education Department argued the reforms — which also include eliminating other federal aid programs and sunsetting some student loan repayment plans — place “commonsense limits and guardrails” on student loan borrowing and simplify repayments.
However, lawmakers say the lower aid caps will force new students to take out additional student loans and make it more difficult for nurses to join the healthcare workforce, which is already suffering from shortages exacerbated by burnout during the coronavirus pandemic.
For example, the loan caps wouldn’t meet most Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist programs, which can cost over $200,000.
“CRNA programs have shown to be a critical return on investment, with default rates near zero percent, and a workforce that overwhelmingly provides anesthesia to rural and underserved communities where higher cost physicians do not practice,” the letter says.
Jeopardizing advanced nursing degrees could also impact primary care, according to the letter. Over half of Medicare beneficiaries received primary care from a nurse practitioner or physician associate, according to research cited by the lawmakers. In rural communities, over 60% of Medicare patients receive those services from a nurse practitioner or physician associate.
“Nurses and nurse faculty make up the backbone of our health system,” the lawmakers said. “As such, post-baccalaureate nursing degrees should be treated equally to other accredited post-baccalaureate health profession degrees.”
Editor’s note: Natalie Schwartz contributed to this article.
