The Massachusetts Nurses Association is among a nationwide coalition of health care organizations criticizing a Trump administration plan that would limit some students’ access to federal loans.
While graduate students could previously borrow loans up to the cost of their degree, the new rules — part of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” passed by Congress — would set caps depending on whether the degree is considered a graduate or professional program.
The Education Department is defining the following fields as professional programs: pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatry and theology.
Left out are nursing, physical therapy, dental hygiene, occupational therapy and social work, as well as fields outside of health care such as architecture, education and accounting. Students pursuing graduate degrees in these fields would face tighter federal student loan limits under the plan.
In a statement, the Massachusetts Nurses Association criticized the loan caps, saying it would “make it dramatically harder or impossible to afford the education required to meet the needs of our communities.”
MNA board member and Tufts Medical Center staff nurse Mary Havlicek Cornacchia told GBH News that “clearly the decision is being made by people that have no idea what we do.”
She said the changes will only worsen a nursing shortage that she described as a “crisis.”
“We’re finding it difficult to recruit and especially difficult to retain,” she said. “And, not only just staff nurses, the day-to-day care of patients, but advanced care practitioners who are often the first and most easily accessible professionals for patients that are in need of care.”
Havlicek Cornacchia said the upfront costs of getting into nursing — let alone the education needed to become a nurse practitioner or a physicians assistant — are already high, and limiting loan access will turn off people considering the profession.
That, she said, will only worsen healthcare bottlenecks and ultimately harm patient care.
“It’s already hard enough to get an appointment ... with your general practitioner or even a specialty area, like dermatology, for example — it takes months and months,” Havlicek Cornacchia said. “Having nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants available enables many more people to be seen in a more timely manner.”
While the plan is still being finalized, the new student loan caps would take effect next July.
Why this is happening now
The Trump administration says limits on graduate loans are needed to reduce tuition costs. It believes that capping student loans will push universities charging higher-than-average tuition to look at lowering rates.
To define what counts as a professional program, the Education Department is turning to a 1965 law governing student financial aid. The law includes several examples of professional degrees but says it isn’t an exhaustive list. The Trump administration’s proposal, by contrast, says only the degrees spelled out in the new regulation can count as professional programs.
One in 6 of the nation’s registered nurses held a master’s degree as of 2022, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
The details of the plan were recently hashed out in a federal rulemaking process.
What this means for students
Some future students could find it more costly or difficult to pursue a specialized degree. Under the new plan, students in professional programs would be able to borrow $50,000 a year and up to $200,000 in total.
Other graduate students, such as those pursuing nursing and physical therapy, would be limited to $20,500 a year and up to $100,000 total.
Trump administration says impact will be minimal
The Education Department says its data show 95% of nursing students, for example, are in graduate programs that won’t be affected by the new caps. The department says the vast majority of students are in programs that cost less than the $100,000 cap being proposed for federal student loans.
Students already enrolled in graduate programs would be grandfathered into current lending limits.
National health groups agree that change will worsen nursing shortage
A coalition of health care organizations has urged the Education Department to change course, arguing that post-bachelor’s health care degrees that are needed for licensure or certification should be considered a professional degree.
They also say that fields being excluded are largely filled by women and in high-demand. According to a U.S. Census Bureau report in 2019, women made up about three-fourths of the full-time, year-round health care workers in the U.S. and accounted for a much higher share in jobs such as dental and medical assistants.
The organizations contend that capping federal student loans will make the ongoing nursing shortage even worse, force students to seek more expensive private loans and threaten patient care.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing says if the proposal is finalized, “the impact on our already-challenged nursing workforce would be devastating.”
