Federal budget policies could put the nation’s nursing faculty workforce under great strain, according to a March 20 JAMA Health Forum viewpoint by two leaders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Proposed changes to the U.S. federal budget emphasize short-term recruitment of clinical nursing staff “without thoughtful consideration for the faculty needed to train more nurses, not only for the present moment, but also for decades to come,” according to the viewpoint.
The piece, “Funding Nurse Recruitment While Defunding Nurse Educators,” is by Joshua Barrett, PhD, RN, the associate director for UNC’s Center for the Business of Health, and Zoey Kernodle, DrPH, the center’s director and a research assistant professor.
The faculty nursing shortage is a significant driver of the nation’s short supply of nursing professionals.
Dr. Barrett and Dr. Kernodle outlined two budget policy proposals that could harm the U.S. nursing workforce long-term:
1. The Nurse Faculty Loan Program
Drafts of the fiscal 2026 budget — H.R.1, which passed in July — included proposed cuts to federal nursing research and workforce development programs. One of those programs, called the Nurse Faculty Loan Program, faced termination but “ultimately received funding,” the viewpoint said. However, “recurring proposals for its elimination suggest its future remains tenuous.”
“During the 2023 to 2024 academic year, U.S. nursing schools turned away 65,766 qualified applicants, primarily due to insufficient faculty,” the viewpoint said. “Without capacity expansion, nursing schools will continue to limit the total workforce regardless of recruitment program success.”
2. Federal loan limits
One compounder to the potential elimination of the Nurse Faculty Loan Program and broader nurse educator shortage are proposed limits to federal student loans.
H.R.1 places a $200,000 cap on federal loans for students in professional degree programs. The Education Department proposed removing nursing programs from the “professional” designation and shifting them to “graduate,” which would limit borrowing to $100,000 for students in Master of Science in Nursing and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs.
DNP graduates account for a significant amount of nursing faculty, the viewpoint said.
“With loan limit reductions and proposed [Nurse Faculty Loan Program] elimination occurring simultaneously, prospective nursing faculty face a double constraint: reduced borrowing capacity for their education and eliminated loan forgiveness for faculty service,” according to the viewpoint.
To mitigate the nursing faculty shortage and support the future nursing workforce, Drs. Barrett and Kernodle said policymakers should stabilize and sustain funding the Nurse Faculty Loan Program and address “the academic-clinical salary differential,” as advanced practice registered nurses earn a median salary of $129,480, compared to the median $93,958 salary for nursing faculty.
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