Were there changes to nurse education funding, loan forgiveness, or credentialing standards during the Trump years?

1. What changed to the “professional degree” label and why it matters

The Department of Education’s revised definition excludes several fields — nursing (MSN, DNP), physician assistant, physical therapy, audiology and others — from the category it now calls “professional degrees,” a shift implemented as part of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill that affects which graduate borrowers qualify for higher loan limits and certain loan types previously available to professional students ^{[7] [2] [8]}. That classification matters because under the new rules only those counted as “professional degree” students are eligible for the higher lifetime and annual borrowing limits the administration preserved for certain categories, while others fall under tighter graduate borrowing caps; outlets report caps such as $100,000 for graduate students versus $200,000 for professional-degree students in some summaries of the policy ^{[9] [8]}.

2. Loan program eliminations and caps cited by reporting

Reporting repeatedly notes the elimination of the Grad PLUS loan program and the imposition of tighter lifetime and annual borrowing caps for many graduate students — changes that frequently are tied in news coverage to the loss of “professional” status for nursing and related fields ^{[10] [3] [11]}. Different outlets cite different cap figures in their summaries of the law and implementation guidance (examples referenced include lifetime caps like $100,000 and $200,000 distinctions, and other reporting cites annual or lifetime figures tied to the administration’s repayment redesign) ^{[9] [8] [10]}.

3. Effect on nurses and nursing organizations’ response

Nursing groups including the American Nurses Association and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing publicly criticized the change as likely to hinder access to graduate nursing education at a moment of workforce shortage; those organizations have urged the Education Department to reconsider the classification because it could make advanced practice education less affordable ^{[1] [12] [13]}. News coverage highlights concerns that reduced loan access could affect the pipeline for nurse practitioners and other advanced roles ^{[2] [14]}.

4. Changes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and legal pushback

Separately, the administration issued orders and rules intended to “restore” or refocus PSLF toward what it describes as essential public service (including nursing) but also adopted a rule giving the Education Secretary discretion to deny forgiveness where employers engage in activities deemed a “substantial illegal purpose.” That discretion sparked litigation by states and cities arguing the rule unlawfully conditions forgiveness on political or ideological criteria and could deny nurses and other public workers PSLF relief ^{[5] [6] [15]}.

5. Conflicting framings and media verification

Fact-checking outlets like Snopes summarize the November 2025 announcements as an asserted reclassification of nursing and related credentials and note the change was widely reported and shared on social platforms ^[7]. Government spokespeople and the Education Department have pushed back in some reporting — with at least one outlet quoting a department press office calling some coverage “fake news” — and multiple publications cover both the department’s rationale and heavy pushback from professional associations ^{[16] [8]}.

6. What the available sources do not resolve or quantify

Available sources do not provide a single, authoritative table of the new numerical loan caps tied to each degree category as enacted versus proposed, nor do they supply detailed breakdowns of how many current nursing students will be affected or the department’s full legal justification text in one digestible place; those granular numeric and legal texts are not included in the present reporting collection (not found in current reporting). Likewise, while multiple outlets cite eliminated programs and caps, the precise statutory language and implementation timeline (beyond cited effective dates like July 1, 2026 in some pieces) require consulting the official Federal Register or the Department of Education rule text for definitive confirmation (not found in current reporting).

7. Bottom line and competing perspectives

Reporting agrees that the Trump administration’s policy package materially altered loan access for many graduate programs by redefining “professional degrees,” removing nursing from that bucket, eliminating Grad PLUS loans, and tightening PSLF eligibility — moves the administration frames as restoring program integrity and focusing aid on essential public-service roles, while nursing organizations and many state and local officials frame them as cuts that will harm healthcare workforce capacity and risk politicizing forgiveness ^{[2] [5] [15]}. Readers seeking definitive statutory language, exact caps by program, or the department’s full legal rationale should consult the official rulemaking documents and the lawsuits’ filings, which are not fully reproduced in the cited news reports (not found in current reporting).