Nurses gain support in fight over professional degrees

Nurses have said the Trump administration is making a mistake in excluding nursing programs from its list of professional degrees, and they are getting support from lawmakers.

Nearly 150 members of Congress have signed a letter asking the Department of Education to include post-baccalaureate nursing degrees in its listing of professional degrees.

Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, says the exclusion of nurses from the department’s list of degrees brings real consequences. Mensik Kennedy says it will discourage some from pursuing graduate degrees, which are required for teaching programs. Ultimately, she says that would hurt the supply of new nurses.

She tells Chief Healthcare Executive® that she’s encouraged by the support of lawmakers in the inclusion of nursing programs for professional degrees.

“It was wonderful to see and we're continuing to reach out and get more support from everyone I know,” Mensik Kennedy says. “I've gotten personal emails from individuals, not even nurses, from across the country and across the world about their support. So really hopeful that we'll continue with this energy around this very issue.”

The American Hospital Association also has expressed its concerns of the exclusion of nursing, along with social work, physician assistants, physical therapists. The hospital association sent a letter to the Education Department asking the agency to reconsider, saying that making it harder to borrow will create more staffing challenges for health systems.

"To continue to allow the health care community to provide complex, comprehensive and high-quality patient care, it is critical that we grow, not narrow, the pipeline of highly skilled health care professionals," the association said.

Mensik Kennedy says that she’s hopeful the education department will update the list to include advanced practice nurses before seeking public comment.

Altogether, 148 members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives signed onto the letter to the education department. Most are Democrats, but 12 Republicans signed onto the letter.

“Nurses and nurse faculty make up the backbone of our health system, and post-baccalaureate nursing degrees lead to demonstrated outcomes, with a recent study from the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity showing that nursing was one of the top three master’s degrees for return on investment,” the lawmakers wrote. “As such, post-baccalaureate nursing degrees should be treated equally to other accredited post-baccalaureate health profession degrees.”

The Education Department’s list excludes programs including a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), and a PhD in nursing.

Nursing leaders say the omission is damaging because it would limit how much they could borrow from federal loan programs: $20,500 annually and $100,000 over a lifetime. Those with professional degrees, including doctors, dentists, and veterinarians, could borrow up to $200,000 in a lifetime (and some say that cap is too low).

Mensik Kennedy says the issue for nurses is that with lower borrowing limits, fewer nurses would pursue positions as faculty. And she says that could translate to fewer students in nursing schools, at a time when those schools are already turning away applicants due to a lack of faculty.

She says she sees growing momentum to have nursing graduate programs included in the education department’s list of professional degrees.

“I do think it is shifting,” Mensik Kennedy says. “Congress very much supports nursing. We have a nursing caucus in both the Senate and the House, and it is bipartisan in nature. And so those individuals recognize how important nursing is to the health of our nation.”

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The lawmakers also pointed out that many Americans receive primary care services from nurse practitioners. More than half of Medicare beneficiaries (57%) received a primary care service from a nurse practitioner or physician associate, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).

“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 lawmakers wrote in the letter.

The Department of Education said most nurses wouldn’t be affected by the changes. The Trump administration says the borrowing limits are meant to ensure that more people aren’t racking up high amounts of debts they won’t be able to pay.

But Mensik Kennedy says the changes would deter nurses from pursuing graduate degrees, and that could lead to fewer students in nursing schools.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) also praised the lawmakers signing onto the letter.

“At a time of persistent workforce shortages and growing demand for healthcare services, this level of bipartisan engagement sends a clear signal that policies affecting nursing education and workforce development are matters of national importance rather than partisan debate,” the group said in a news release.

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