How the student loan pause is affecting nurses
It looks something like this:
As new nurses graduate, they are encumbered with looming worries over the debt they’ve acquired while attending nursing school. Many nurses feel pressured to fast-track preparation for the NCLEX exam to start work immediately and begin repaying these debts.
Their job hunt time is also reduced as they seek to work as soon as they’re eligible - once they pass state nursing boards exams. Instead of taking time to prepare for the most important test of their career, and working to land their dream job, they are rushed by concerns about the debt they’ve accumulated. Plus, many nursing positions now require advanced degrees such as a BSN or MSN, which add additional costs.
As emergency relief measures were expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, discussions related to pausing student debt and student loan forgiveness have continued to gain momentum. The Student Loan Payment Pause was recently extended by the Biden Administration through the U.S. Department of Education on April 6, 2022. The COVID-19 Emergency Relief includes these measures for eligible student loans:
A suspension of loan payments
A 0% interest rate
Stopped collections on defaulted loans
This is the sixth extension of the pause, first established by the Trump administration in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic. According to a March report from the New York Federal Reserve, approximately 37 million borrowers have collectively saved around $195 billion in waived payments since the start of the pause.
This also helps borrowers get closer to forgiveness programs that could eliminate their debts entirely. For example, the U.S. Congress introduced the bill H.R. 2418 Student Loan Forgiveness for Frontline Healthcare Workers Act on April 8, 2021, though progress on this has since stalled.
Student loan amounts vary based on the student’s saved contribution, potential scholarships and grants, the degree being attained, and the wide range of costs for the chosen educational institution. Here is the average nursing student debt following graduation according to the type of nursing program completed:
Associate Degree Nursing (ADN): $19,928
Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN): $23,711
Master of Science in Nursing (MSN): $47,321
These amounts are providing the student has already begun loan repayments while attending school. Average monthly student loan payments are $196 for ADN RNs, $234 for BSN RNs, and $544 for MSN RNs. Many nursing students are working while completing their degrees, especially those seeing advanced degrees, which further places a financial toll as they juggle working around classroom and clinical instruction.
This topic remains largely controversial as many grapple with what is the core root of these financial debacles of students. Older generations have mixed feelings as they feel they were able to manage the debt they incurred as they sought and obtained higher education, but tuition costs have skyrocketed to rates that many find unreasonable and unaffordable.
The cost of education is a huge detractor for those considering the nursing profession since many organizations now require a BSN for their RN positions. Many who may be considering nursing as a profession may feel the debt incurred is greater than the return. Pausing student loan debt, especially for nurses, is a great way to reduce the financial burden.
Perhaps most importantly, this could attract more nursing students at a time when it is desperately needed as we continue to experience unprecedented rates of nursing shortages nationwide.