ADVOCACY ACTION ALERT
You have likely heard of the uproar in the nursing community about graduate nursing degree programs not being listed as "professional degree programs" in the new proposed definition as proposed by the RISE Committee of the Department of Education. These definitions will be included in a new regulation outlining eligibility and limits for federal loans to support graduate education. We are working closely with the Nursing Community Coalition (NCC) to ensure that we have a unified effort to be sure that nurses are heard!
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP NOW
1) 1. Sign the petition if you have not already. We estimate there are around 250K signatures so far, but remember there are around 4.7 million RNs in the US-
2) Pass the link along to your colleagues!
2. Please reach out to your members of Congress to sign on to Dear Colleague letter from Sen Merkley. Please ask your members of Congress to sign onto this letter before the deadline of COB, Tuesday, December 9, 2025. The link provided below is only for members of Congress- so don't try to sign on yourself! We have already signed on as a supporting organization.
a) Here's how you can find your member of Congress: Go to https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
Enter your info and it will give you information on your members and their contact information
Here is draft language you can use to send in an email or you can call their office!
As a registered nurse, I am deeply concerned about the recommendations from the Dept. of Education RISE committee regarding the definition of "professional degree programs" failing to recognize graduate nursing degree programs as professional degree programs. As a constituent, I am asking you to sign on to the Dear Colleague letter being circulated from Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon. You can sign on using this Quill link (https://quill.senate.gov/letters/letter/31020/opt-in/view/b0e81d56-c9eb-4f38-b251-e1cc05e12b50/)
This action will demonstrate your commitment to supporting nurses and ensuring that nurses pursuing graduate education are eligible to receive federal loan amounts equivalent to other professional degree programs.
3) Respond to this survey to help us collect data on graduate preparation of our membership to submit with comments. We will use this data when we submit comments to the Department of Education once the proposed rule is released for public comment. We will likely be sharing a draft comment letter with instructions for you to submit yourself- The goal is to have 500K comments from the nursing community.
If you have questions- please reach out to Kae Livsey at kaerlivsey@gmail.com.
This alert is also attached as a file so you can share with your ambulatory care nursing colleagues who may not be AAACN members!
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Kae Livsey PhD MPH RN
Western Carolina Univ
Waynesville NC
(703) 403-2468
kaerlivsey@gmail.com------------------------------