Local nurses say federal loan limits will exacerbate nursing shortage

Jane Gerencser, a registered nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y., said she has seen “cyclical” nursing shortages over the course of her career. She’s been an RN since 1989 and before that, she worked as a nurses’ aide and a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN).

But now, she said, “we have a chronic, chronic crisis on our hands with short staffing.

“We have a lot of nurses projected to retire. A lot from my generation,” said Gerencser. “We’re going to lose a lot of our labor in nursing, our frontline staff.”

Projections from the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis show a nursing shortage in the tri-state-area over the next five years.

• In New York, there is currently a deficit of 5,360 RNs, which improves slightly by 2031 with a projected deficit of 4,160. There is a deficit of 8,270 LPNs in 2026, which is projected to grow to 13,420 by 2031.

• In New Jersey, there is currently a deficit of 4,110 RNs, which is projected to grow to 6,350 in 2031. There is a deficit of 2,010 LPNs, which is projected to grow to 2,550 in 2031.

• In Pennsylvania, there is currently a deficit of 22,750 RNs, and 20,910 in 2031. There is a deficit of 1,620 LPNs in 2026, which is projected to grow to 6,130 in 2031.

Alongside major organizations such as the American Nurses Association, Gerencser and other nursing professionals believe the new caps on federal student loans will worsen the shortage.

Lowering the degrees

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – the federal statute passed containing tax and spending policies – graduate-level nursing degrees are no longer classified as “professional degrees,” significantly reducing student loan limits for nurses in graduate school.

• “Professional degree” programs are eligible for $50,000 in federal student loans annually, with a lifetime maximum of $200,000.

• All other programs, including advanced nursing degrees, are classified as “graduate degrees,” which now have capped federal student loans at $20,500 annually, with a lifetime maximum of $100,000.

The loan limits don’t apply to undergraduate degrees – which RNs and LPNs need to practice. But there is a trickle-down effect.

“It’s hard to get into nursing school,” said Gerencser. “Why is it hard to get into nursing school? It’s hard to get into nursing school because they can only take the top tier because they don’t have the professors to teach the next generation.”

In New York, more than 70 percent of undergraduate nursing deans said they had to turn away qualified applicants, according to a 2024 report from the Center for Health Workforce Studies. Faculty shortages were the most commonly reported reason why class sizes were limited:

• 75 percent of four-year programs and 69 percent of two-year programs that turned away applicants said it was due to an insufficient number of faculty.

• 75 percent of four-year programs also reported that they needed to turn away applicants due to a lack of clinical training sites; 31 percent of two-year programs reported they turned away applicants for the same reason.

“We have got a huge nurse faculty shortage,” said Kathleen Burke, professor and assistant dean of nursing programs at Ramapo College in Mahwah, N.J. “In New Jersey, 40 percent of all undergraduate nursing programs have said they cannot increase enrollment because of the lack of qualified faculty.

“We’re going to be in a massive nursing shortage in about ten years – both in New Jersey and New York – because nurses are going to retire,” added Burke. “So we need, number one, to replace those nurses. But in order to replace those nurses, we need nurse educators. And to be a nurse educator, you have to have at minimum a master’s degree in nursing, and for a large number of them, you need a doctoral degree.”

Tuition can fall within the Big Beautiful Bill’s proposed loan limits for some graduate-level nursing degrees. To get a Masters of Science in Nursing – which is needed to become a Nurse Practitioner and takes about three years – tuition is approximately $52,000 at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y., and $47,000 at Ramapo College. But students do use federal loans to cover books, fees and living expenses, which could exceed the newly proposed limits, especially for those seeking more advanced degrees at private, elite institutions.

To get a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at New York University or Columbia University, for example, costs can exceed $200,000.

A study from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), meanwhile, shows that the average annual cost of graduate nursing programs exceed the cap totaling $37,040 per year.

Burke, who has been an RN for more than 40 years and has taught at Ramapo College since 2007, said most graduate-level nursing students are also juggling families and mortgages.

“Between now and 10 years from now, there’s going to be an additional 7,000 nursing jobs in the state (New Jersey). And nurse practitioner jobs, they’re expected to grow by almost 40 percent,” said Burke. “How are we going to put them out with – again, no faculty – and again, caps on the student loans that they will take?”

Nursing colleagues have told Gerencser that if they can’t get federal loans to cover their education, they won’t be pursuing graduate degrees.

According to American Association of Colleges of Nursing data:

• 78 percent of deans expect the new loan cap to reduce enrollment.

• 82 percent of students report the annual cap will negatively affect their ability to finance education.

The risk

Prior to the Big Beautiful Bill, graduate students were able to borrow up to the full amount of their degrees via Grad PLUS loans. By eliminating Grad PLUS loans and imposing stricter loan limits, the Department of Education says it will bring down the soaring costs of college tuition.

Nurses say the risk is not worth the reward.

“Why are we limiting those to get those higher degrees to teach the next generation? We are already in a crisis,” added Gerencser. “I don’t see the rationale. Don’t understand the rationale. Don’t agree with the rationale.”

A nursing shortage does not just hurt nurses. It affects patient care and increases the odds of patient mortality. One major PubMed study shows that each extra patient added to a nurse’s average workload increases the odds of mortality by 7 percent. Fewer nurses means longer hospital stays and higher rates of hospital-acquired infections, pressure ulcers, falls, adverse drug events and pneumonia.

“For something that we are all in need of – health care – it baffles me as to why we have to fight for something that we all need and will benefit from,” said Gerencser. “It baffles me.”