A new Department of Education policy could have devastating effects on nurses in Maryland who are hoping to attain advanced degrees to further their careers.
The policy delists nursing concentrations from the Education Department’s list of professional degrees.
That means federal loans for graduate degrees for nurses will have a lifetime cap at $100,000 or $20,500 a year. These are licenses that allow nurses to study to be practitioners, midwives and other specialized health workers.
The change is sending alarm bells throughout the nursing and healthcare industry as Maryland, and the country, are going through a nursing shortage.
According to the Maryland Hospital Association, the state is in need of about 4,000 nurse practitioners.
The Trump administration claims the caps will help cut the cost of tuition by showing schools that people will not pay as much for tuition.
“Placing a cap on loans will push the remaining graduate nursing programs to reduce their program costs, ensuring that nurses will not be saddled with unmanageable student loan debt,” a DoE release states. “The department solicited feedback from the public and hosted a negotiated rulemaking committee, which included a broad range of higher education stakeholders, to regulate on changes to loan limits included in the Act. The public will have another opportunity to weigh in on this issue as the Department finalizes the rule early next year.”
However, Dr. Lou Bartolo, president of the Maryland Nurses Association, said the loans are for more than just tuition.
“They have their didactic, regular classroom education piece that has to be completed,” Bartolo said. “They also have many hours, hundreds of hours of clinicals that have to be attained as well. And in order to do that, some of them cannot work.”
Many nurses take loans out to pay for housing or living expenses.
Bartolo also noted that there is a shortage of physicians in the country and many nurse practitioners are filling in the gaps.
“Nurse practitioners, they really provide so much care in these rural and underserved areas of our state,” Bartolo said.
