There was a time not long ago when nurses almost universally were seen as heroes.
We all remember the dark days of COVID, especially early on, when we weren’t really sure what we were dealing with and personal protective gear was in short supply.
Nurses risked their lives for us. Their expertise kept our hearts beating. They worked hours on end, and separated themselves from their families and loved ones. When the afternoon rolled around, we would open our windows, cheer and bang pots and pans, generally raising a ruckus in appreciation for them.
Now, the federal Department of Education is demeaning their sacrifice and their expertise in ways both symbolic and literal.
Under the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” passed by Congress earlier this year, nursing would no longer be considered a “profession.”
Technically, the ruling by the Department of Education is that nursing programs are no longer professional degree programs, but the outcome is the same. The move will limit the student loan borrowing power for those wanting to start or continue a career in nursing.
This limitation in financial assistance would affect hundreds of thousands of prospective nurses. According to the American Nurses Association, there are more than 260,000 students enrolled in entry-level Bachelor of Science in Nursing programs and another 42,000 in associate degree programs.
“To eliminate the possibility of gaining an education is only going to be harmful for so many people in need,” said Mary Havlicek Cornacchia, a nurse at Tufts Medical Center and a member of the Massachusetts Nurses Association board.
“Oftentimes, the people who are seeking their education in these roles are trying to serve their own community that is lacking the care that they need,” she said. “So you’re cutting off an entire segment of the population that wants to get into the healthcare profession and provide for more people.”
It also throws up barriers for those looking to grow in the profession.
“With a cap on federal student loans, fewer nurses will be able to afford graduate nursing education, such as master’s and PhD degrees,” Olga Yakusheva, a professor of nursing and business of health at Johns Hopkins University, told Newsweek.
Such degrees, she said, give nurses pathways to “organizational leadership, (the) ability to diagnose and prescribe medications, training to lead independent research, and credentials to teach at institutions of higher education.”
It could also exacerbate what is already a crisis-level shortage of nurses in the United States and threatens the progress Massachusetts has made in addressing the problem.
In a report released earlier this month, the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association found the number of vacancies at 60 acute care hospitals across the state has fallen from 19,000 in 2022 to 13,600 last year. That’s a drop of 28%.
And it’s a drop that will be put at risk if nurses and prospective nurses are effectively cut off from the loans they need to advance their careers.
We know, of course, the American public holds the nursing profession in higher regard than the Trump administration does. A Gallup poll taken in January 2025 proves it, finding that nursing is the most trusted of 23 professions in the country with 75% of Americans finding nurses to be highly honest and ethical.
They need to be treated as such. They deserve and must be treated as the vital, lifesaving professionals they are.