The Quiet War on Nursing.
Downgrading nursing from a professional degree eliminates recognition, education standards, and passing the NCLEX to receive their license. Earning a nursing degree isn’t easy. That’s why there is a shortage of working nurses. If it were easy, everyone would be a nurse. Nursing students pour countless hours into studying, sacrifice social time, and devote their full energy to mastering a demanding field. They deserve real recognition for that commitment. They are the ones saving lives along with many healthcare workers. Their degree shouldn't be downgraded. By the Trump administration doing that, they’re just creating an even bigger shortage of nurses. It’s only going to make nursing even more in demand than it already is.
Emily Van De Riet explains how the Trump Administration is preparing to make massive cuts to provide student loans. It’s always about the money because look who benefits from this. Hospitals benefit from a cheaper, more easily replaceable workforce. Nursing programs do not benefit from this because unprofessional behavior in students can also damage the program's reputation, jeopardize partnerships with clinical sites, and undermine the development of crucial ethical and professional values, according to Science Direct. This is harming nursing overall. The programs will decrease in student population. It will have a negative impact on the learning environment. People won’t take it seriously because it’s not a professional degree.
The consequences will be immediate. We already live in a healthcare system plagued by staff shortages, unsafe patient loads, and rural hospital closures. Does the Trump Administration really want this to happen all over again, risking people’s lives just to deprofessionalize a degree? When you downgrade the profession, you realistically downgrade the care. Patients won’t get the nurse who takes the time to critically think before acting; they’ll end up with whoever was the cheapest to train. They won’t receive a nurse who’s passionate about caring for others and dedicated to their work. The hospitals won’t get safe staffing; they will get cost-cutting bills. And the nurses? They will get more responsibility with less pay, less recognition, and less protection. Nurses have always been the backbone of patient care. They’re the ones who catch the early warning signs, advocate for vulnerable patients, manage crises, and translate medical chaos into human comfort. Downgrading their profession doesn’t make the system more efficient. It makes the country less safe.
Nursing is mostly women. I am a nursing student, and I know the classes are overruled by women. I fear it’s gender targeted. And that’s exactly why it keeps ending up in the crosshairs whenever an administration leans into deregulation that conveniently depresses wages and diminishes authority. If women do the job, it’s treated as less serious, less skilled, and less worthy of investment. While nurses are running codes, preventing infections, stabilizing trauma patients, providing emotional support to patients, and literally keeping people alive, policymakers continue to say the profession isn’t professional. How much more downgrading can this be? Policymakers aren’t the ones saving lives every day, yet they’re the ones who get to decide whether a nursing degree is ‘professional’ or not. Kellie Hanna says in her article, “ Imagine an alternate universe where women dominate heavy-duty truck driving while men are in high demand as top-notch babysitters. A world where male nurses earn accolades for their exceptional care, and women thrive as electricians.“ This is a prime example of how it’s not usual to see male nurses ruling the hospitals. The majority of it is female, and that's a common fact. Nobody tends to question the male labor force, electricians, engineers, pilots, and mechanics. We could literally say people that are fixing cars are the same as saving lives. Crazy right? The irony of it all is that nursing is one of the most emotionally demanding professions in the healthcare system. Nurses must combine science, critical thinking, rapid decision-making, and communication, all under time pressure, emotional strain, and understaffing. Instead of worshipping nurses and the amount of work their job requires, the downgrade treats it like a side hustle you can pick up after a weekend certification course.
Nursing is central to any functional healthcare system. By downgrading, that is reckless. If nurses weren’t a thing who would be saving lives, providing emotional support, running codes, and checking for medication errors? The doctors? I could say first hand the doctors see you for fifteen minutes and diagnose you. Nurses are hands-on people who care for your loved one's daily needs and are with them 24/7.
At the end of the day, nursing is a profession built on expertise, critical thinking, and compassion. Downgrading that work doesn’t just disrespect nurses; it weakens an already fragile healthcare system. If policymakers keep degrading nurses, the consequences won’t fall on them; they will fall on the patients' health and well-being. We owe nurses more than words; we owe them the protection that they deserve, the respect they give, and the recognition of their everyday tasks within their jobs.
Comments
Post a Comment