11/25/2025
So much negative stuff about what Trump supposedly said or is doing about the nursing profession. So I dug.
Here is the clear, simple truth, without media spin and without misunderstanding:
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✅ 1. No one is saying “nursing is not a professional career.”
Not Trump, not DOE, not the rule writers.
Nursing is a profession
Nursing licensure, standards, education, and regulatory status do not change under this proposal.
The confusion comes from a financial-aid classification called “professional degree programs.”
This is only about student loan categories—not about professional respect, licensure, or clinical status.
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✅ 2. What the DOE is REALLY doing
The Department of Education is redefining which academic programs qualify for “professional-degree loan limits.”
They are not defining which jobs are “professional careers.”
They are defining which programs can access the highest federal borrowing limits.
These high-limit “professional degree loans” will now be reserved for:
• MD / DO
• DDS / DMD
• JD (law)
• PharmD
• DVM
• OD
• DC
• PsyD
• etc.
Nursing programs were not added to the high-limit category, so they default to the standard graduate-loan limits, not the “professional” loan limits.
That’s it.
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✅ 3. Why the DOE is doing it
This is the key point you sensed:
✔ It is NOT about nursing.
✔ It IS about controlling runaway tuition and loan amounts.
The DOE wants to stop:
• colleges from charging whatever they want
• students from borrowing unlimited amounts for ANY master’s program
• massive debt from schools with poor cost-to-salary outcomes
So they created a small, tightly-defined “professional” category with higher loan limits — mostly programs that require doctorate-level training, often 6+ years post-secondary, and have very high earning potential (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, law).
Graduate nursing programs (MSN, DNP, NP, etc.) are still respected — they simply do not meet the new borrowing-limit definition.
👇 This is the problem the DOE is trying to stop:
A for-profit or private college may charge $100,000 for a nursing degree,
while another reputable school charges $35,000 for the same ASN/BSN/MSN.
Under the old rules:
• BOTH students could borrow very high amounts.
• Schools could raise prices with no limit because the federal loans would cover it.
DOE wants to stop this pattern.
Under the new rule:
• High loan limits only go to the “professional degree list.”
• Nursing students get standard graduate loan limits.
• This puts financial pressure on high-priced nursing programs to stop raising tuition.
In simpler language:
🚫 “We aren’t saying nursing isn’t a profession.”
✔ “We are saying nursing programs cannot be allowed to charge unlimited money just because students can borrow unlimited money.”
This is a tuition-control mechanism.
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✅ 5. Bottom Line (Crystal Clear)
❌ Nursing is not being downgraded.
❌ Nursing is not being called “non-professional.”
❌ Trump or DOE did not make a negative statement about the career.
✔ Nursing programs are still respected, licensed, and professional.
✔ The DOE simply did not put them in the “special high-loan program” category.
✔ This is meant to stop colleges from price-gouging nursing students.
