Meaghan Hayward and Diana Kott are current Ph.D. in nursing students.

The Department of Education has chosen to advance a proposed definition of professional degree programs that excludes nursing, even as the field’s post‑baccalaureate education is widely recognized for its rigor, complexity and essential role in the healthcare workforce.

By defining professional programs so narrowly, the proposal leaves nursing, the nation’s largest healthcare profession, outside of the very category it clearly embodies. Should this proposal be finalized in July, new loan limits on federal student loans for graduate degrees will take effect, posing a specific financial threat to current and prospective post-baccalaureate nurses. 

With our state already experiencing a shortage of nurses and nursing faculty, as well as issues with access to healthcare services, this new legislation has the potential to cause significant adverse effects to our state’s healthcare status.

Post-baccalaureate nursing graduates are independent providers, health systems leaders, researchers, educators and university faculty. These roles are delivering critical care and driving innovation across communities. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) recognizes that explicitly including post-baccalaureate nursing education as professional is essential for strengthening the nation’s healthcare workforce, supporting the next generation of nurses, and ultimately supporting the healthcare of patients in communities across the country.

This decision will have impacts on nursing education, direct patient care and advanced practice nursing. The impact on nursing education will lead to a decline in hospital-based nurse leaders and educators, university faculty, nursing research and evidence-based practice initiatives.

The serious implications posed by a decline in these critical nursing roles will trickle down to the bedside nurse. With nursing retention already struggling across the country, we will see less nursing student enrollment, due to a lack of faculty. This decision would force nursing schools to decrease how many undergraduate nursing students are able to be admitted each year.

Additionally, we will see impacts on the organizational infrastructure of nursing within health systems. Expert guidance and support from the hospital-based nurse leader and educator to the new graduate nurse is imperative now, more than ever. 

When examining the effects this would have on advanced practice nurses, we must consider that researchers at Harvard Medical School found that nearly one-fourth of all U.S. health visits are delivered by non-physicians, with nurse practitioners alone providing nearly 1 billion patient visits annually within the U.S., according to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Nurse practitioners have a vital role in providing healthcare within rural communities, which should be an important factor given that Maine is the most rural state in the nation. 

Healthy People 2030 includes in its goals to target increased access to comprehensive, high-quality healthcare services. Currently, objectives that meet little or no detectable change include reducing the proportion of people who can’t get medical care when they need it, increasing the proportion of people with a usual or reliable source of care and increasing the proportion of pregnant women receiving early and adequate prenatal care. With the exclusion of nursing from the professional degree program, the access to comprehensive, high-quality healthcare services will be significantly affected.

The downstream effect of this will lead to increased issues with nursing shortages and increased demand for our state’s nurses. Several national nursing organizations have filed lawsuits challenging the Department of Education’s exclusion of advanced nursing degrees from the definition of professional degree. All Mainers should be following this important decision given the significant effect it will have on our state’s future healthcare prospects.