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Were registered nurses reclassified under a different federal job series during 2017–2020?
Executive summary
Available sources show that registered nurses in the federal government continue to be classified under the OPM Nurse job series (0610/GS‑0610) during the 2017–2020 period; OPM’s Nurse Series guidance explicitly references September 2017 and positions in that series [1]. There is no source in the provided set indicating a wholesale reclassification of registered nurses into a different federal job series between 2017 and 2020 (available sources do not mention a change of series).
1. OPM’s Nurse series remained the official classification for federal nurses
The Office of Personnel Management maintains the Nurse Series [2] and its qualification standards, and its Nurse Series page notes employees assigned to positions in the occupational series as of September 2017 “will be considered to have met the basic requirements for the position occupied,” which implies continuity of the 0610 series through that date [1]. A separate OPM position classification standard for GS‑0610 from 1977 is still referenced as authoritative background on the series [3]. Together these documents show OPM continued to treat nursing as the 0610 occupational series rather than moving nurses into a different numbered series in that timeframe [1] [3].
2. Federal job-search and agency pages continue to list nurses under series 0610
USAJOBS and other federal hiring portals explicitly list nursing vacancies using the 0610 series filter and nurse‑specific job pages, including nurse.usajobs.gov and search filters that return “Nurse (Registered Nurse)” as a series/category, reflecting operational hiring classification under 0610 [4] [5] [6]. Defense and agency career pages likewise map nursing duties to the 0610 Nurse series in their civilian occupational overviews [7]. These public-facing hiring tools provide practical evidence that agencies were classifying and recruiting nurses under the 0610 series during and after 2017 [4] [7] [5].
3. No supplied source documents a formal, system‑wide reclassification between 2017–2020
The provided search results include OPM materials, agency hiring pages, occupational overviews and crosswalk tables, but none state that OPM deactivated the 0610 series or moved registered nurses into a different OPM job series during 2017–2020. The EEOC cross‑classification table notes agencies should reclassify employees from codes OPM has “rendered inactive,” but the table presented in the sources (December 2018) lists active OPM series and does not indicate the 0610 series was removed or replaced [8]. Therefore, based on these documents, a system‑wide reclassification is not documented in the supplied reporting (available sources do not mention a change of series).
4. Where confusion or partial changes might arise — degree, credential or program reclassifications
Some reporting outside this dataset has discussed reclassifications of educational programs or degree categorization (for example, Department of Education’s treatment of nursing degrees), which can affect student loan programs and professional degree status; that is different from OPM’s job‑series classification for federal employees [9]. The sources you provided include an article noting nursing’s regulatory/educational categorization changes can affect loan access [9], but that article doesn’t claim federal civil‑service job series for registered nurses were renumbered or consolidated by OPM in 2017–2020 [9]. In short: administrative changes affecting education or loan categories do not equal evidence that OPM reclassified federal nurse job series (available sources do not mention a change of series).
5. Practical indicators: staffing data and occupational descriptions remained tied to 0610
Personnel and job‑market pages that summarize federal nurse employment and pay continue to use the 0610 series identifier (FederalPay, federaljobs.net, DoD COOL), and occupational descriptions for federal nursing duties map to 0610 job standards [10] [11] [7]. Those continuities in classification, pay reporting and recruitment support the view that registered nurses remained in the Nurse [2] series across 2017–2020 [11] [7] [10].
6. Bottom line and limitations
Bottom line: within the set of provided documents, federal registered nurses were not reclassified into a different OPM job series during 2017–2020; the Nurse series (0610/GS‑0610) is repeatedly cited and used by OPM, USAJOBS and agency pages [1] [3] [4] [5]. Limitation: these conclusions are restricted to the supplied sources; if there were agency‑specific reclassifications, classified memos, or later OPM rule changes not included here, they are not reflected (available sources do not mention a change of series). If you want, I can search broader federal documents (OPM Federal Register notices, agency classification bulletins) to look for any formal reclassification records beyond these results.