By Esteban Fernandez
Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT — Graduate degrees for nursing students will be much harder to obtain in West Virginia due to a change the Trump administration made to a list defining which professional programs are eligible for student loans.
“We know that first-generation students, students growing up in impoverished areas, students who may not live with a biological parent—all would have more difficulty navigating the educational part of their lives,” Clay Marsh, chancellor and executive dean for Health Sciences at West Virginia University, said. “Many of these students do need the scholarships, loans, grants, and other resources to help them manage the cost of the pathway they are pursuing.”
Trump’s U.S. Department of Education removed nursing from the list of professional degrees the department maintains, which affects which advanced degree programs receive federal financial aid. Lending limits imposed by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill mean students pursuing graduate degrees can only borrow half of what students pursuing a professional degree can. By removing nursing from the professional category, students pursuing degrees as cardiac nurse practitioners, emergency nurse practitioners, oncology nurse practitioners, and other fields will face higher financial barriers.
Marsh said the medical field expects a shortage of one million to 1.2 million nurses over the next five years, based on the expansion of healthcare as well as the aging population and anticipated retirements.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon dismissed concern over the Trump administration’s changes to the list of professional degrees as fake news.
“Here’s the truth: 95% of nursing programs are UNAFFECTED by POTUS’ One Big Beautiful Bill grad loan caps,” she said in a tweet on Nov. 24.
The U.S. Department of Education also published a release that same day on the changes. The department called the limits it placed on student borrowing “common sense,” arguing that the loan limits would help drive down the cost of graduate programs. This, in turn, would reduce debt, the department said. The release pointed out that undergraduate students generally will not be affected by the new lending limits.
However, in a release published by Protect Borrowers, an organization advocating for borrowers in the student loan system, it was noted that even though the administration claimed it was not making a value judgment on whether a program is professional, delisting nursing will still have real consequences since the list determines how much money students can borrow for graduate-level programs. The American Nurses Association also expressed its concern.
“Nurses make up the largest segment of the healthcare workforce and the backbone of our nation’s health system,” Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, said in a release. “At a time when healthcare 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.”
Delisting nursing from the list of professional degrees is not the only change the Trump administration is making. A new policy removes loan forgiveness for people working in fields connected to immigration or gender-affirming care and adds the term “terrorism” into a phrase about “obstructing or influencing” federal policy. The term and phrase are not concretely defined, and the Department of Education will decide which organizations do not qualify.
Marsh said that in rural areas like West Virginia, students need scholarships, loans, and grants to help them manage the cost of their chosen pathway. The loan changes may also influence some students to avoid pursuing nursing as a field. He expects the changes will exacerbate the nursing shortage the field currently anticipates.
There are also consequences for patient care.
“We’re worried that there may be a shortage of nurses who are highly trained and skilled, because in a number of our rural communities, there are fewer and fewer health providers,” Marsh said. “So these advanced practice nurses, as well as nurse anesthetists, are responsible for delivering primary services to the patients they see.”
Marsh said WVU is working with its students to ensure they understand the changes to their student loans when the policies take effect in July.
“We have loan professionals who work with many of our students on scholarships and federal loans that they may want and need,” Marsh said. “This ensures they and their families understand the limits and the changes that have come with the One Big Beautiful Bill.”
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