Nursing degrees lose professional status under new federal loan rules

Nursing has always been a tough profession. Twelve-hour shifts, heavy patient loads, the physical demands of bedside care, and the emotional weight of caring for people in crisis all take a toll. Many nurses leave the career within their first few years, while many others retire early, worn down by decades of chronic stress.

When COVID hit, these pressures on nurses deepened. More than 100,000 nurses left the profession during the pandemic, according to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, and another 610,000 say they plan to leave by 2027 if conditions don’t improve. McKinsey projects a 200,000 to 450,000 RN shortfall by 2025, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates 189,000 RN openings every year for the next decade.

Even the pipeline is struggling. NCLEX testing volume has dropped, faculty shortages have forced nursing schools to turn away tens of thousands of qualified applicants each year, and burnout levels among practicing nurses remain high, especially in acute care, where turnover has been especially steep.

The federal government has just dealt a new blow to the industry. On November 6, the Department of Education released its new list of “professional” degrees tied to expanded federal loan limits, and nursing was absent. With nursing no longer classified as a “professional degree” for graduate student loan purposes, future nurses, nurse practitioners, and nursing faculty could face a significantly harder challenge financing their education.

What losing “professional degree” status actually means

Here’s how the rule change reshapes financing for nursing students:

• Graduate nursing students are capped at $100,000 total in federal loans across all advanced degrees.
• Borrowing above that limit must come from private lenders, typically at higher interest rates and without income-driven repayment protections.
• Grad PLUS loans are eliminated, removing a major financing tool that previously filled tuition gaps.
• Low-income, rural, and first-generation students will be hit hardest, given limited access to affordable private credit.
• Multi-degree pathways become more difficult to finance, affecting future NPs, CRNAs, CNMs, CNSs, and nursing faculty.

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), students in designated professional programs—medicine, dentistry, law, pharmacy, and a few others—will be allowed to borrow up to $50,000 per year and $200,000 total. All other graduate students, including those in nursing, will be capped at $20,500 annually and $100,000 total once the rules take effect on July 1, 2026. 

The law also eliminates Grad PLUS loans, replacing them with a new Repayment Assistance Plan tied to the higher borrowing caps that nursing programs won’t qualify for.

Nursing groups immediately warned that excluding the field from the professional list would limit access to federal loans for master’s, doctoral and nurse practitioner programs. The decision “significantly limits student loan access,” said the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, and the American Nurses Association likewise argued it will restrict critical funding for graduate training.

Nursing students already rely heavily on loans

The Education Department countered that most nursing programs fall below the $100,000 lifetime cap and stressed that the designation is administrative. But this overlooks students in higher-cost programs, nurses who need multiple degrees to move into advanced practice or teaching roles, and those already carrying graduate debt. It also does not address the cumulative financial effect of living expenses, clinical hour requirements and lost income during full-time study, which often push students close to federal limits before tuition is paid in full.

Even under the current system, nursing education is financed largely through debt. AACN data shows:

• 76% of undergraduate nursing students take out loans
• 69% of graduate nursing students rely on federal loans
• Nearly three-quarters of nursing students graduate with debt

Median graduate nursing debt ranges from $40,000 to $55,000, and broader analyses show total debt ranging from $23,000 to $185,000, depending on program path and institution. Employers are aware of this burden—in many workforce surveys, student loan repayment assistance is ranked as one of the most attractive benefits for newly hired nurses.

The students who’ll feel the new rules most are those who have already borrowed for a prior degree. A nurse carrying $40,000 in graduate debt today would have just $60,000 of federal eligibility left for a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), far below the cost of many advanced programs.

Program costs make the new cap hard to reconcile

Nursing program costs vary dramatically, but many degrees exceed what the new federal caps allow. Using federal data, NurseJournal estimates:

• ADN programs: typically $23,900 to $66,320 total
• BSN programs: about $30,880 per year, totaling $89,560 to $211,390
• Independent estimates: $40,000–$80,000 for public BSNs; $100,000–$200,000 for private
• MSN programs: generally $49,000 to $113,000
• DNP programs: often higher than MSN tuition, especially at private institutions

A private BSN can run $120,000, and an MSN can add another $60,000 or more. Under current rules, students can bridge that gap with Direct Unsubsidized and Grad PLUS loans. After 2026, they’ll need private credit, institutional aid, or personal funds, a much steeper climb for students who may already be juggling work, clinical hours, and family responsibilities.

A strained workforce faces new financial barriers

Bureau of Labor Statistics projections estimate that registered nurse employment will grow about 5 percent in the coming decade, with approximately 189,000 openings each year due to retirements and job changes. A Health Resources and Services Administration analysis summarized by the American Organization for Nursing Leadership projects a national shortfall of about 10 percent in 2027, with deficits in many rural regions persisting through 2037.

Advanced practice nurses are central to expanding access to primary and specialty care, particularly in underserved communities. Nursing schools also face faculty shortages, since teaching roles require graduate degrees. If graduate programs become harder to finance, bottlenecks in nursing school capacity could deepen.

Some institutions are experimenting with tuition-free pathways. UTHealth Houston’s Cizik School of Nursing announced a “Future Nurses Fund” to provide tuition-free accelerated BSN training for eligible Texas residents beginning in 2026. But such initiatives are limited in scale and cannot offset national changes to federal borrowing.

Pushback to the new rules is mounting

Parts of the new loan framework still require full regulatory review, and federal officials have indicated they may revisit certain classifications before the rules take effect in 2026. Nursing organizations, hospital associations and workforce advocates are expected to press for revisions, whether by adding nursing to the professional list or adjusting lifetime caps for licensure-linked degrees in shortage fields. Some states may also expand loan forgiveness or grant programs targeted at nurses, mirroring existing models tied to rural or safety-net service.

For now, prospective students face a more constrained financial path, and these new limits will likely affect who can enter the field, who can advance within it, and who may ultimately be forced out.