Nurse Advocacy Group Urges DHS to Recognize Nursing as a STEM Field

The Nursing is STEM Coalition is leading efforts by the nursing profession to end the current divide among federal agencies as to whether nursing should be considered a STEM occupation. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is its first targeted agency because adding nursing to DHS’s STEM Designated Program List would allow foreign nursing students to stay in the U.S. longer following graduation, thereby helping to alleviate the dire nursing shortage that continues to plague the health care industry. The Coalition notes that other federal agencies tend to follow DHS’s lead when deciding whether to recognize a discipline as a STEM field. Moreover, such broadened recognition could make additional federal monies available to expand nursing education, which would also help further reduce the U.S. nursing shortage.