Bill would add MSN eligibility to skilled-workforce loan repayment to recruit clinical nursing instructors

Senate Bill 22-21, introduced on behalf of the nursing community, would add the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) to the list of degrees eligible for North Dakota’s Skilled Workforce Student Loan Repayment Program and related scholarships when recipients commit to serve as clinical instructors.

Senator Kirsten Rohrer said the bill is intended to encourage more nurses to pursue graduate education and to expand the pool of qualified clinical instructors for nursing programs. Nursing leaders told the House Human Services Committee that strict clinical-instructor rules and the high cost of graduate education limit the number of available instructors, which constrains program capacity and contributes to staffing shortages—especially in rural and western parts of the state.

Beth Sanford, president of the North Dakota Nurses Association, described student debt and the cost of graduate education as a barrier to producing more clinical faculty and said adding the MSN to existing Career Builders and loan-repayment structures would help recruit instructors to rural hospitals and long‑term care facilities. “If we can get master's-prepared nurses at all of these hospitals in the West, then we can do nursing education more creatively and have cohorts in those places,” Sanford said.

Sherry Miller, executive director of the North Dakota Nurses Association, testified that an eligible nurse would qualify by teaching a specified number of clinical credits per year and residing and working in the state in the occupation requiring the degree. Witnesses described two existing program pathways: front-end tuition assistance (scholarships) and back-end loan repayment for service commitments with an employer; the bill would make MSN credentials eligible under those existing program structures.

Committee members discussed degree requirements for clinical instructors and noted the North Dakota Board of Nursing’s existing waiver processes for unqualified faculty. Witnesses said the bill intentionally did not specify a single MSN specialty so that multiple graduate pathways (education, leadership, psychiatric nursing, nurse practitioner, etc.) could qualify for incentives aimed at expanding the clinical‑instructor workforce.

No opposition testimony was recorded at the hearing. The committee closed the hearing on SB 22-21; implementation details would depend on program rules and any statutory language changes adopted by the legislature.