AHNCC supports GAHN call to Protect Federal Recognition of Nursing as a Professional Degree
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Protect Federal Recognition of Nursing as a Professional Degree
TOPEKA, KS, UNITED STATES, December 19, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation (AHNCC) supports the Global Academy of Holistic Nursing (GAHN) call to
Protect Federal Recognition of Nursing as a Professional Degree
December 19, 2025
This press release is written on behalf of the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation. It regards the Recognition of Nursing as a Professional Degree. Our intent is to provide support for the Global Academy of Holistic Nursing (GAHN) statement of December 18, 2025.
The U.S. Department of Education has proposed a definition of “professional degree” programs that excludes nursing.
The GAHN statement calls upon the U.S. Department of Education to revise the proposed definition of “professional degree” programs to explicitly include nursing.
The exclusion threatens access to federal student loans, undermines the nursing education pipeline, and places the future of the healthcare workforce at serious risk.
• Nurses are the largest healthcare profession in the United States.
• Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) fill critical gaps in primary care, mental health, rural health, and chronic disease management.
• Holistic nurses and holistic nursing scholars advance whole-person, integrative approaches to care that support prevention, resilience, well-being, and human flourishing.
• Holistic nurses provide care across all populations and settings
• There are multiple points of entry into nursing, from undergraduate to doctoral education, making nursing a key driver of workforce diversity and access.
Excluding nursing from the federal definition of “professional degree” would limit access to essential federal student loan programs, especially for:
• First-generation college students
• Students from rural, underserved, and marginalized communities
• Working adults returning to school
• Students pursuing advanced practice and doctoral education
At a time of historic nursing shortages, burnout, and rising population health needs, restricting educational access will deepen—not solve—our national healthcare crisis.
Such exclusion:
• Disrupts equitable access to nursing education
• Disenfranchises nurses, the largest group of healthcare providers in the nation
• Undermines resources for the healthcare workforce
• Expands the critical nursing shortage
• Weakens national public health capacity
• Interferes with US healthcare transformation goals
• Threatens the future of holistic nursing scholarship
We urge you, the public, to support this call for action if you value your health, the nurses who care for you and your loved ones, and a better healthcare system for all. Please contact the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Department of Education on behalf of GAHN, people seeking care, and all nurses.
To learn more about and to read the complete advocacy brief, please click here.
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About the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation
The American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation (AHNCC), a 501c (6) organization, was created to advance holistic, person-centered care that emphasizes clients as the experts of their own experience, and nurses as instruments of healing, by assuming full administrative authority and sole responsibility over credentialing programs based in the values, knowledge, and skills of Holistic Nursing.
Margaret Erickson
AHNCC
+1 785-267-0943
email us here
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