TNM OFFICIAL EDITORIAL STATEMENT ON THE DOE’S REDEFINITION OF PROFESSIONAL DEGREES
The Nurses Magazine
As a publication dedicated to elevating nursing professionals’ voices, expertise, and lived experiences, we are compelled to address the U.S. Department of Education’s recent redefinition of what constitutes a “professional” academic program. Though a technical adjustment on the surface, this change has profound implications. It effectively diminishes the standing of nursing, public health, social work, counseling, health administration, and other applied professions that form the foundation of our nation’s healthcare, safety, and social well-being.
Source Reference: As documented in the U.S. Department of Education’s official RISE Negotiated Rulemaking Discussion Paper, “Loan Limit Provisions and Definitions,” the Department’s proposed definition of “professional degree” includes a fixed list of programs—such as Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, Law, Optometry, Osteopathic Medicine, Podiatry, Chiropractic, and Theology—while excluding nursing, public health, social work, counseling, health administration, and other applied professions.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Discussion Draft and Proposed Amendatory Text (2025).
Available at: https://www.ed.gov/media/document/discussion-draft-and-proposed-amendatory-text-loan-limit-provisions-and-definitions-112319.pdf
A Structural Demotion of Essential Professions
By narrowing the federal definition of “professional programs” to primarily law, medicine, and a limited set of fields, the Department of Education (DOE) has created a hierarchy of legitimacy. Despite being one of the country’s most trusted, regulated, and evidence-driven professions, nursing has been relegated to a secondary category. Public health experts who manage outbreaks, clinical social workers who hold families together during crisis, and behavioral health professionals confronting the nation’s mental health emergencies face the same challenges. Language in federal policy drives funding structures, institutional decisions, student support, and societal perceptions. When the government redraws definitional boundaries, it reallocates respect, priority, and investment.
Legal and Workforce Consequences
The exclusion of nursing and similar fields from the federal “professional” classification risks cascading consequences:
- Reduced eligibility for federal grants, loan forgiveness, and workforce development programs.
- Barriers for institutions seeking accreditation or program expansion.
- Lower prioritization in the national workforce strategy at a time of critical shortages.
- Increased financial burden on students entering essential-yet-underpaid professions.
- Legal ambiguities affecting licensure recognition, employer classification, and academic pathways.
Nurses, social workers, and public health practitioners already operate in strained systems; they are understaffed, underfunded, and exhausted. Policy should fortify the workforce, not destabilize it.
Why Federal Definitions Have Always Been Broad
Historically, federal agencies have intentionally adopted expansive definitions of professional education with the goal of not sidelining vital occupations, especially those disproportionately represented by women, immigrants, and racially marginalized communities. Nursing and social work are not only care professions; they are equity professions.
Narrow definitions risk reinforcing long-standing gender and socioeconomic disparities. They privilege elite-credential fields while minimizing professions built on community, prevention, caregiving, and advocacy. Exclusionary policies cannot have neutral consequences.
Our Position
We firmly oppose federal language that delegitimizes the academic rigor, societal necessity, and professional authority of nursing and other human-service careers. Education policy must reflect the realities of American needs, not outdated hierarchies of prestige.
Seeking clarity, transparency, or accountability in program classification is valid, but it must not come at the expense of the professions holding our healthcare, social systems, and public health infrastructure together.
Our Call to Action
We urge the following:
- The Department of Education to revise the classification with stakeholder input.
- Academic institutions to address the issue publicly and boldly.
- Professional organizations to mobilize legal and policy reviews.
- Legislators to ensure federal protections and funding remain intact.
- Students and practitioners to demand recognition equal to the service they provide.
Nursing, public health, social work, and allied professions are not peripheral—they are foundational. The nation cannot afford a policy framework that treats them as anything less.
Our publication will continue reporting, advocating, and amplifying voices until federal language reflects reality: These are professional programs, and the people involved in them are professionals.
