Washington state’s health care system depends on a strong and stable workforce, and nurses — the largest and most trusted profession in the country — are at the center of it. Patients and communities thanked nurses and health care workers for the vital role they played in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet that trust and appreciation appear to be overlooked at the federal level.
As someone who relied on federal graduate loans to become a nurse practitioner, I am alarmed by the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed rule that removes nursing from its list of recognized “professional degree” programs, among other important health care occupations. This proposed rule is the direct result of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — the sweeping 2025 law that capped graduate loan amounts and restructured repayment programs. Under the act, only students in designated professional degree programs can access higher loan limits of up to $50,000 per year or $200,000 over a lifetime. By excluding nursing, the department is effectively placing graduate nursing education out of reach for many by limiting loan amounts to $20,500 per academic year or $100,000 over a lifetime.
For Washington state, this is not an abstract policy debate — it is a threat to the stability of our already strained health care workforce.
Washington is currently experiencing shortages in both primary care and behavioral health. Advanced practice nurses — nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, nurse anesthetists and clinical nurse specialists — are essential to closing those gaps. Limiting federal loan access for these advanced practice programs will shrink the pipeline of future providers, particularly in underserved areas that already struggle to recruit and retain clinicians.
Our behavioral health crisis makes this even more urgent. Washington faces emergency department boarding, a shortage of psychiatric beds and long wait times for behavioral health appointments. Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners are one of the most urgently needed clinicians in the state, especially in rural counties with a severe shortage of psychiatrists. If graduate nursing education becomes less accessible, these vital clinicians will become even harder to train and deploy.
This rule will have a direct impact on training future nurse educators. Washington’s nursing programs already turn away qualified applicants because they lack enough graduate-prepared faculty and report persistent educator shortages. When fewer nurses can afford graduate school, the educator shortage expands. When educator positions go unfilled, fewer students can be admitted. And when fewer students are admitted, Washington’s pipeline of future nurses will be restricted. We cannot afford to tighten this bottleneck.
As a first-generation college student and the son of Asian-Indian immigrants, I realize the importance of having a health care workforce that represents the populations they care for. The Department’s proposal will disproportionately harm working-class, first-generation and students of color — precisely the groups Washington institutions are working hard to recruit. Reducing access to graduate education undermines our efforts to make progress in this area.
Many graduate nursing programs span two to three years. While some may not reach the $100,000 borrowing limit, they would still be affected by the $20,500 annual limit. The education department’s new list of professional degrees includes theology, podiatry and clinical psychology — some of which were not consistently recognized in the older regulatory definition the department claims to be following. If the list can be modernized to include other disciplines, there is no defensible reason to exclude nursing, a profession grounded in science, evidence-based practice, licensure and direct responsibility for human lives.
Washington relies heavily on graduate-prepared nurses to keep communities healthy — from urban clinics in Seattle to critical-access hospitals in our rural counties. Nurses are asking for fairness and recognition of reality: Nursing is a profession, and our state’s health depends on it.
For the sake of Washington’s patients, families and future workforce, the education department must include nursing in the professional-degree designation before this rule is finalized.
