RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – A recent policy change by the Department of Education is re-classifying the nursing profession.
Nursing will no longer be placed in the “Professional Degree” category. Unlike a doctor or lawyer who is in this category, nurses do not need an advanced degree to practice.
This new policy led many to believe nurses were no longer considered professional by the federal agency.
Dr. Ashley Vazeen has read the new policy and says the new categorization doesn’t change her opinion of nursing.
“I know I am a professional,” says Vazeen, a Doctor of Nursing Practice. “Whatever was said nothing has changed.”
Dr. Vazeen says she understands the Department of Education’s theory on nursing.
It’s true, she says, nurses do not need an advanced degree to practice. If they pass their boards, they can go directly to work.
But she adds, for those who want advanced degrees like a master’s or nurse practitioner’s license, they may need money to attain those advanced degrees. Federal funds for nurses to pay for that education may be limited under the new policy.
These nurses can go on to set up their own practice, particularly in rural areas where medical care is not easy to come by.
Still, she says by taking nurses out of the professional degree category, it could ultimately have an upside.
“Education has become so expensive, and it has to stop,” says Vazeen. “Hopefully this can go one of two ways. It can really help nursing or can really hurt nursing.”
Professor Jody Covert, director of Truckee Meadows Community College Maxine S. Jacobs Nursing School says the cost of a nursing education isn’t cheap.
The new policy could indeed bring down that cost.
However, the other side of the story, if the categorization isn’t as advertised, she still needs nurses with advanced degrees to keep her nursing school going. The policy could discourage nurses from attaining those advanced degrees.
“I have to have master’s prepared nurses who have had bedside experience come back and teach in the program,” says Covert. “We can’t run a program with baccalaureate or associate degree nursing.”
Covert says fewer advanced nursing degrees mean fewer instructors which cuts the number of nursing students allowed in classes.
That translates into a bigger nursing shortage than we have now.
This proposal does not go into effect until July of 2026.
There’s been quite an uproar from the nursing profession against the policy.
Those opposed say nurses who seek more education need the loans to pay for it.
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