Hannah Moffenbier was working as a bedside nurse when she realized something was seriously wrong with the American healthcare system.
“When I was at the bedside, I could quite literally feel the system itself cracking underneath," she says.
She was scared. Workloads were increasing. Staff were retiring early. Nurses were afraid to ask for help.
“There were days where I was working in the ICU or in the emergency department where I wasn’t safe. And not just physically," she remembers. "I didn’t feel safe because I couldn’t keep my patients safe, because I didn’t have the resources to.”
Moffenbier realized she needed to do more to help fix her profession. She decided to get her doctorate in nursing, or DNP, at Marquette University.
“I didn’t want to just survive the system, or do whatever I could from within it," she says. "I wanted the education to actually change it.”
Moffenbier is now one of thousands of nursing graduate students who may not be able to borrow as much money to get that degree.
When Congress passed its budget bill this summer, it changed which college degrees are classified as “professional” programs.
That’s important because it caps the amount of money students can borrow to get those degrees. Instead of being able to take out up to $200,000 in federal student loans, borrowing would be capped at $100,000.
The Trump administration has called these “common sense limits” on borrowing.
Programs affected include nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy and others.
The caps to federal borrowing aren’t set in stone yet. A public comment period will begin in early 2026. Certain students, like those studying medicine and law, wouldn’t be affected by this change.
Why do nursing students borrow so much money?
Lowering the amount of money students can borrow will create problems for future nurses.
While the lifetime cap on federal loans would be $100,000, students would only be able to borrow $20,000 per year. That’s down from the current cap of $50,000 per year.
Jill Guttormson is the dean of the college of nursing at Marquette University. She explains that graduate students often take out loans to cover their living expenses while they’re in school. Full-time clinical work isn’t paid.
"Depending on program, we have 50 to 75% of our grad students who are accessing federal loans," she says. "The concern is for those students who are going to school year-round and are taking a high credit load. My largest concern for students in these grad spaces is on that annual cap limit, where they will quickly hit the $20,000 before they’re done with a full academic year.”
If students have to borrow less, why can’t schools like Marquette lower tuition or make it easier for nurses to work while they’re taking classes?
“We actually encourage them to really limit the amount that they work so that they can focus on school and becoming a safe and effective practitioner," Guttormson says.
And, she says that programs need to pay nursing educators well, because they could earn a much higher salary working at the bedside.
Trump administration calls borrowing caps 'common sense' limits
Not everyone thinks that capping loans is a bad thing.
Jack Wallace works for Yrefy, a private lending company specializing in refinancing student loans. He says the changes would force students to be more mindful about taking out loans they can’t afford.
"It’s brought attention to, 'What’s the ROI (return on investment) on the degree?' We need to be better educated consumers when we’re picking a college or university and a program to go to," Wallace says.
For students, it feels personal.
"Part of why it does hit so hard is because we just lived through a moment where the whole country saw what nurses carry," Moffenbier, the second-year doctoral student says. "It’s not like it started during COVID. The whole world went back to normal but we didn’t get that luxury."
Katherine Kokal is the education reporter at 89.7 WUWM - Milwaukee's NPR. Have a question about schools or an education story idea? You can reach her at kokal@uwm.edu
