When a patient wakes up terrified at 3 a.m., it is not a policymaker who answers the call — it is a nurse. Nurses are the ones who sit at the bedside, monitor subtle changes in a patient’s condition, and intervene in moments when seconds matter.

As both a nurse and an educator, I see the damage that poorly informed policies can inflict not only on our profession but also on the safety and stability of the healthcare system itself. I was both saddened and angered to learn the U.S. Department of Education, under a Trump administration proposal, is considering a reclassification that would treat nursing as something less than a professional degree for federal student loan purposes.

What appears to be a bureaucratic change is, in truth, a deeply harmful policy with far-reaching consequences.

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