![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/michelle-wade-1-20260203-1200x798.jpg\")
Michelle Wade of the Vermont Nurse Practicioners Association speaks with a lobbyist in the cafeteria at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, Feb. 3. Photo by Glenn Russell\/VTDigger<\/p>\nMichelle Wade of the Vermont Nurse Practicioners Association speaks with a lobbyist in the cafeteria at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, Feb. 3. Photo by Glenn Russell\/VTDigger<\/p>\n
A coalition of nearly 150 nurses descended on the Statehouse Tuesday morning, filling the House gallery, meeting with lawmakers and congregating in the cafeteria.<\/p>\n
Though an annual affair, this year\u2019s visit had added urgency, arriving on the heels of federal changes that have heightened many nurses\u2019 concerns about the future of health care in Vermont. Specifically, they pointed to Vermont\u2019s ability to recruit and retain a strong workforce of nurses.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Education formally posted a rule<\/a> that would limit how much nurses pursuing graduate degrees can take out in federal loans.<\/p>\n Though only a small percentage of nurses receive graduate level training, it is a load-bearing population, Heather Johnston told VTDigger in December. Johnston has a doctorate in nursing practice and is a primary care provider at Gifford Hospital.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a bottleneck, because if you don\u2019t have masterly prepared and doctorally prepared nurses that are willing to be educators, then you don\u2019t have new nurses coming in,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cThe new nurse at the associate degree and even baccalaureate degree level won\u2019t really be affected very much by this, but what will be affected by this is the person to teach them. If you don\u2019t have the educator, you can\u2019t teach them.\u201d<\/p>\n The loan changes were originally outlined in H.R.1, the Trump administration\u2019s budget reconciliation bill that became law this summer. Nurses associations\u00a0\u2014 including those in Vermont \u2014 and those affected by the change have been waiting for the formal rule, and advocating against it.<\/p>\n The rule does not define higher level nursing degrees as professional degree programs. In excluding nurses from the professional category \u2014 which physical therapists, social workers and educators, among others, are also now excluded from \u2014 the Department of Education is proposing a $20,500 annual cap on federal loans that can go towards graduate degrees. It caps the total amount a graduate-level nursing student could borrow at $100,000.<\/p>\n The Trump administration says that the caps aim to incentivize schools to bring down the overall cost of tuition, as a press secretary for the Department of Education told NPR<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Practicing as a nurse does not require a graduate degree. A recent state survey<\/a> of licensed nursing assistants found that 20% of LNAs completed technical school or postsecondary education, while the majority have a high school diploma, GED or some college education without a degree. A different 2023 survey<\/a> found that of Vermont\u2019s 6,944 registered nurses, 50.6% have a bachelor\u2019s degree, 35.8% have an associate degree and only 9.4% have a graduate degree.<\/p>\n However, becoming a nurse practitioner, a certified registered nurse anesthetist or a certified registered nurse midwife requires advanced degrees.<\/p>\n Those with doctorates in nursing may focus on research and improving nurses\u2019 clinical practice. They may also train future nurses.<\/p>\n An assessment of Vermont\u2019s nursing needs for 2024-2026<\/a> identified education access as the \u201cprimary bottleneck\u201d in a broader nursing shortage.\u00a0<\/p>\n That survey expressed a shortage of registered nurses in the state. Specifically, it identified an increase in the number of new nursing roles needed, in addition to a need for replacement nurses as others retire or burn out of their postings.<\/p>\n Michelle Wade, the president of the Vermont Nurse Practitioners Association, worries about the aging population of nurses.<\/p>\n \u201cThe workforce is declining, and there\u2019s not enough new nurses coming,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t find a way to keep new nurses coming, no one\u2019s going to be there to take care of you.\u201d<\/p>\n She and other nurses pointed out the burden that such a nursing bottleneck could put on Vermont\u2019s already strained health care system. Six distinct hospital service areas<\/a> in Vermont have low enough ratios of providers to patients that they qualify as health care shortage areas<\/a>.<\/p>\n A 2022 survey<\/a> from the Vermont Medical Society found that the state is short 115 primary care physicians compared to national benchmarks; the report found that every Vermont county besides Chittenden and Bennington lacks adequate numbers of primary care providers. The report\u2019s authors expect this will only worsen by 2030.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nursing advocates say that nurse practitioners and nurse midwives, who provide primary care, can help fill that gap. A 2023 census<\/a> found that 46% of the nearly 1,000 nurse practitioners in the state work in primary care while the remaining population are divided among specialty care areas.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone knows how long it takes to get into primary care. We do not have enough providers. That\u2019s the special niche that our midwives and our nurse practitioners have,\u201d Kate McFaun Williams, a registered nurse and a leader in Vermont\u2019s chapter of the American Nurses Association, told VTDigger in December.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cParticularly in rural health, we\u2019re going to need advanced practical nurses, and we\u2019re going to need educators,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n The coalition\u2019s Tuesday advocacy centered on these concerns of bolstering nurses\u2019 involvement in a rural health care transformation and creating stronger pathways for nurses to practice in Vermont. The nurses met with Lt. Gov. John Rodgers, the house health care committee and distributed materials through the cafeteria.<\/p>\n