The Trump administration’s ruling that nurses no longer will be considered “professionals” by the U.S. Department of Education has a direct effect on the nation’s faith-based schools.
Health care in general and nursing in particular have a long and interconnected history with Christian colleges and universities. For example, Baylor University’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing is one of the largest nursing schools in the nation and a premier program in Texas. In 2023, the nursing school recorded the largest enrollment of any undergraduate degree program within the Baylor system.
Baylor’s nursing program was established in 1909 as a diploma program within Baylor Hospital in Dallas, which is now Baylor Scott & White Health’s Baylor University Medical Center. In 1950, the nursing program became one of six degree-granting schools of Baylor University. The first baccalaureate degrees were granted in 1952, establishing the school among the earliest baccalaureate nursing programs in Texas.
In an interview with the Baylor Lariat, Provost Nancy Brickhouse said nursing students are responding to one of the world’s greatest needs: “Students are clearly answering to the demand the world has in need for health professionals, and you certainly see that in the way that they gravitate towards those schools.”
(Baylor University photo)
Gaining admission to the nation’s best nursing schools is so competitive that up to 80,000 applicants are turned away annually. This is largely due to a shortage of nursing faculty and enrollment capacity.
Given the high academic standards and urgent need for nurses, it makes no sense that the Department of Education would declassify nursing as a professional occupation, Lisa Muirhead told Atlanta News First. She’s senior associate dean at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in Atlanta.
“We need professional nurses on the front line caring for individuals,” Muirhead said. “Students will have to reach out and secure private loans which may have higher interest rates.”
Dean Linda McCauley also questioned the move: “In the escalating need for health care providers, why would you put up roadblocks? And that’s what this DOE action is doing.”
Nursing students at Emory graduate with an average student loan debt of $100,000, McCauley said. Yet under the Department of Education’s new rules, nursing students would be excluded from higher loan limits, according to Newsweek. That can mean the difference between a 5% student loan rate and a 15% interest rate.
The American Nurses Association has expressed concern about the new Trump administration rules.
Jennifer Mensik Kennedy
“Nurses make up the largest segment of the health care workforce and the backbone of our nation’s health system,” said Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association. “At a time when health care in our country faces a historic nurse shortage and rising demands, limiting nurses’ access to funding for graduate education threatens the very foundation of patient care. In many communities across the country, particularly in rural and underserved areas, advanced practice registered nurses ensure access to essential, high-quality care that would otherwise be unavailable. We urge the Department of Education to recognize nursing as the essential profession it is and ensure access to loan programs that make advanced nursing education possible.”
Mercer University is another faith-based school with a notable school of nursing. While its leaders have not made public comments about the new policy, the university posted an article on its website Nov. 21 headlined, “Why Are Nurses Important in Healthcare? The Role of Nurses Explained.”
“The approximately 3 million nurses working today comprise the backbone of the U.S. health care industry and are the largest single profession within the field. However, with an increasing population of patients in need of more care than ever before, there is still a nursing shortage,” the article states. “Consistently ranked the most trusted profession in America, nurses play an increasingly significant role in providing care to patients and in the administrative side of health care.”
The change is a spinoff from President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” and is an effort by the Department of Education to clarify who can access certain student loan funds as a professional student. The new list includes only the following graduate degree programs as “professional”:
- Medicine
- Pharmacy
- Dentistry
- Optometry
- Law
- Veterinary medicine
- Osteopathic medicine
- Podiatry
- Chiropractic
- Theology
- Clinical psychology
That leaves out nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and physical therapists.