The Department of Education drew the sword on our profession
I did a deep dive once the Department of Education posted which health professions were no longer considered under “professional degree” program versus “nonprofessional graduate degree”. I assure you this is not a political blog. Stay with me- it is important to understand this for the level of healthcare you deserve!!!
According to the DoE, the separation is based on eligibility for higher federal lending limits. It very clearly states “Students who pursue a degree in other graduate or doctoral programs would be capped at $200,000 in federal loans”, but they removed those degrees that require other graduate or doctoral programs required to sit for national boards in order to be a licensed practitioner including but not limited to: physical therapy, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, doctorate of nursing, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, audiology and social work.
The limit for a non professional degree borrowing is $20,500/ year and $100k lifetime
Nursing (MSN, DNP, NP, etc…)
Physical Therapy (DPT, MPT, PT)
Physician Assistant (PA)
Audiology (Au. D)
Occupational Therapy (OT, OTD)
Speech Language Pathology (SLP)
Architecture
Accounting
Education/ Teaching degrees
Social Work (BSW, MSW, DSW, etc…)
Public Health
Whereas, a professional degree limit is $50k/ year and $200k lifetime
Medicine (DO, MD)
Pharmacy
Dentistry
Optometry
Law
Veterinary Medicine
Osteopathic Medicine
Podiatry
Chiropractic
Theology
Clinical psychology
I observe patterns for a living…
So when I see the Department of Education is excluding physical therapy from the list of “professional” degrees because the cost of education is less, it is a cause to look for patterns [having personally paid off the accumulation of my grad school loans and experiencing the cost of education versus income ratio (that has only gotten worse for new graduates)].
Chiropractors remain on the list of “professional” degrees. PTs are removed from the list of “professional” (and physician assistants, among others listed above that join us requiring grad school to sit for our boards/ licensure). Doctorate of chiropractic requires 10 trimesters (3.25 years). Doctorate of physical therapy programs require 4 years undergrad and 3 years graduate (7 years + paying tuition for last 3 summers of clinical). Both Doctor of _______. Both able to attend a majority of the same continuing education. The cost is SIGNIFICANTLY more to become a PT. I did the calculations from my university and Logan University. Basic pull from university tuition comparison cost below. The full cost to become a chiropractor costs about what PT grad school costs in 1-3 years (depending on university).
When you look at it, you wonder why we are gaining any new PTs in our profession and then you wonder why the Department of Education b*tch slapped us and cut off the ability to get appropriate loans for the cost of our graduate degree. After all, students in a doctorate of physical therapy programs are “pursuing a degree in other graduate or doctoral programs” that should “be capped at $200,000 in federal loans” along with equivalent peers. PT is not the only profession this applies to. It also applies to physician assistant, nurse practitioner, doctorate of nursing, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, audiology and social work.
When you limit the ability for students to enter into these professions and what they are allowed to borrow, you will create a void of care (and limitation based on socioeconomics). And that void of care will eventually affect you and your family members. I understand according to the DoE the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act (the Act) placed commonsense limits on federal student loans for graduate degrees. These loan limits will help drive down the cost of graduate programs and reduce the debt students have to take out.” However, university costs are not reflecting a reduction of cost, which means you will have more professionals (or should I say “non professionals”) pulling out of their education.
So please give us grace as physical therapists (or any other health profession listed above), if we again take a deep breath. We acknowledge most people making executive decisions have no idea the cost to enter our profession, the cost we owe back, the acknowledgment of how many walked away from the profession since the pandemic (>26%) and the physical/ ethical cost of being the helpers. 22,032 Physical therapists left the U.S. workforce in 2021 alone (9.8% of the workforce). Nearly 25% of the current PT workforce is expected to reach 65 in the next decade according to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA).
I hope the AI generated PT of the future can help you post operatively, after injury, muscle or joint sprain/ strain, numbness/ tingling, neurodegenerative, spinal cord injury, after stroke, amputation, thoracic outlet, scar tissue, wound care, heart attack, cardiopulmonary, total joint replacement, vertigo, visual ocular reflex, TMJ, tongue/ lip tie, herniation (disc, meniscus, inguinal, umbilical, hiatal), prolapse (uterine, bladder, rectal), pelvic floor, cancer, correct compensations or with any neuro, vascular or visceral adhesions.
This is the acknowledgment that our profession may become a lost art and the DoE drew the sword. But this is not the only healthcare profession we risk losing… and that is the scariest part of all! How many of you have seen a nurse practitioner or physician assistant in your lifetime?
And another scary fact, is the cost of the “professional degrees” exceeds $200k in lifetime so supply will be low, demand will be high and government holds control.
So at what point do you contact your representatives in charge of this bill?
May we be able to continue to helping as many people as possible with the gifts we have been given so we are not (as Tim McGraw sings) “hurt people hurting people”. You get into this profession because you have a passion to help others and we are loosing far too many helpers, too quickly. We do not need an additional sword drawn.
…and hope I do not live long enough to witness the movie, Idiocracy, medical center come to life.
This is not medical advice. You should always consult your healthcare practitioner(s) for medical advise and what is best for your care. The purpose of this blog is to centralize and share information while connecting with others.