Yes, today we’re going to talk about professions, not confessions, specifically what the Trump administration considers a profession. Hold your hats, people, because you are not going to believe what has been axed by the Department of Education, which will have a profound effect on who can get higher amounts for education loans. When I first saw this on Facebook, I thought certainly this was not true…but alas, it is. Most of us consider nurses, especially nurse practitioners, professionals, along with many other master’s prepared individuals, but not the Trump administration. Here are the facts:

The Department of Education proposed a new, narrower definition of “professional degree.”
This is part of a larger student‑loan and accreditation overhaul designed to limit the higher borrowing cap to 10 program types.
These ten program types include: medicine, law, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatry, and theology.
The implementation of this is set to take effect in July 2026.
Excluded are nurses, teachers, master’s-prepared individuals with business degrees, physical therapists, occupational therapists, social workers, speech pathologists, IT, mental and public health professionals, researchers, and many more professionals with bachelor’s and master’s degrees beyond the Trump administration’s narrow view of a professional degree.
What this means regarding dollars and cents, as outlined in the Big Ugly Bill, is that annual loans for new borrowers are now capped at $20,500 for graduate students and $50,000 for professional students. So, you see, the new definition of professional students will affect many people seeking to advance their education and skills through graduate degrees in excluded professions.
If you think that healthcare cannot get any worse under the Trump Administration, think again…we are setting our country up for severe shortages in professions such as nursing and rehabilitation therapies that have already struggled to keep up with demand. I should know. I spent 35+ years in hospital HR. With our aging population and healthcare shortages, it’s a disaster in the waiting.

I often have health professionals as my main characters because that is what I know. Perhaps this new travesty might have to take center stage in an upcoming book. Of course, I’m not naive enough to believe that my one small voice through my writing will have much of an impact, but it’s what I can do, so I’ll keep weaving in these important messages until I can no longer write. As writers, I feel like we have an obligation to bring these issues to light, as they sometimes get missed before it’s too late to make an adjustment. Maybe after I am long gone, those messages will continue to resonate. If you want to check out my books to see all my subtle and not-so-subtle messages, you know the drill: just click the links below. I think you’ll really enjoy The Invisible Woman.