I strongly urge you to consider graduate loan forgiveness for front line nurse practitioners (APRN)!  We have an overwhelming debt holding us down.  Nurse Practitioners are sinking in graduate school loan/debt as we continue to put our health and lives at risk (on a daily basis) on the front line of COVID illness.  We don't have the luxury of a 'shut down' during the pandemic from either FLU season and now COVID-19.  As professionals, we are required to have a bachelors degree in nursing before pursuing a masters/advanced practice degree.  The programs are designed to last nearly 3 years and cost approx. $900 per credit hour.  For example, a 3 credit hour required class for degree is $2,700.00  (This data is from Maryville University).  

I personally owed $62,000 after graduation in 2016 from MU with my MSN, APRN degree. Today in 2020, my school loan debt has inflated and I owe $71,000.  All the money I have paid towards my loan has not made a dent; but has inflated $9,000 in 4 years!.  All the while, I have continued to serve the public and community in which I reside by caring for them.  

Student loans are forgiven if you work in a rural area; but, in a metropolis where I and many providers reside, we are serving a larger number of patients in need and exposed to many more ill (COVID) patients.  I personally am swabbing for COVID in the clinic I work in many times a day.  I am wearing PPE that is hot and suffocating.  Work is not pleasant in these conditions, but we go every single day to provide for those in need. 

Our society needs to change who qualifies for loan forgiveness and extend it to the providers who are caring for our ill patients and COVID no matter what location geographically they reside and practice.  Please join the cause and help 'forgive'  graduate school loans that are increasing on a daily basis and causing an overwhelming burden on health care providers.  NP's put in long exhausting hours are not compensated near what we are worth.  Most employers low ball and don't want to pay anymore than they pay nurses (which was 3 years less education).  This also contributes to the difficulty in repaying our school loans.  Loan forgiveness is essential for essential workers!  Your help and attention to this very important matter means so much! Thank you and God Bless!