Student Loan Forgiveness for Nurses: Programs and Eligibility in 2026

Nurses can erase student loan debt through several forgiveness and repayment programs, but whether you qualify depends on your loan type, your employer, and the specific program.

• Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) cancels your remaining federal balance after 120 qualifying payments if you work for a government or nonprofit employer.

• Income-driven repayment forgives what’s left after 20, 25, or 30 years, no matter where you work.

• Service programs like Nurse Corps and the National Health Service Corps pay off a large share of your loans up front in exchange for working in a shortage area.

• Private loans don’t qualify for any federal forgiveness — only federal loans do.

Nurse loan forgiveness runs through two kinds of programs: federal forgiveness you earn over time by making payments, and loan repayment programs that pay a chunk of your debt in exchange for a service commitment. Most nurses use one or both.

A lot has changed, and older advice is now often wrong. The one-time Biden cancellation of up to $20,000 was struck down in 2023 and never took effect. The SAVE plan and REPAYE no longer exist. As of 2026, the income-driven plans are the new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), the Tiered Standard plan, and — for people who already had loans before July 1, 2026 — the older IBR, PAYE, and ICR plans.

What still works well for nurses is PSLF and income-driven repayment on the federal side, plus HRSA and state repayment programs for those in underserved areas.

Federal forgiveness rewards time — you make qualifying monthly payments for a set number of years, and the government cancels whatever balance remains.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness is the path most nurses at government and nonprofit employers use. It cancels your remaining federal Direct Loan balance, tax-free, after 120 qualifying monthly payments — about 10 years — while you work full-time for a qualifying employer.

Working at a nonprofit hospital does not qualify you automatically. Three things have to line up:

1. Loan type. Only federal Direct Loans count. Older FFEL or Perkins loans have to be consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan first.

2. Repayment plan. Your payments count while you’re on a qualifying plan — in practice an income-driven plan, since the standard 10-year plan would pay your loans off before you ever reached forgiveness.

3. Employer. You must be directly employed full-time by a government or 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. A nurse at a for-profit hospital or a staffing agency doesn’t qualify, even at a nonprofit site.

Because eligibility turns on your employer rather than your nursing role, we cover the mechanics in depth in PSLF for nurses and whether nurses count as public service workers.

Income-driven repayment forgiveness works even if your employer isn’t a nonprofit. These plans set your payment as a share of your income and forgive the remaining balance at the end of the term. Under RAP, payments run 1% to 10% of your income with forgiveness after 30 years. Borrowers who had loans before July 1, 2026 can stay on IBR, PAYE, or ICR, which forgive after 20 or 25 years. You can read how the newest plan works in the Repayment Assistance Plan guide and compare it to income-based repayment.

One difference matters at tax time. PSLF forgiveness is tax-free. Income-driven repayment forgiveness is federally taxable again for 2026 and later, because the temporary tax exclusion expired at the end of 2025 — so a balance forgiven under RAP or IBR may count as income the year it’s cancelled. State tax treatment varies, so a tax professional can confirm your state’s rule.

If you’re worried the 2025 changes ended PSLF

They didn’t. A 2025 executive order and a final rule would let the Department of Education exclude certain employers it deems to have a “substantial illegal purpose.” A federal court struck that rule down in June 2026, before it took effect, and the Department can’t enforce it under the court’s order, though it may appeal. Either way, the rule never targeted government or nonprofit hospitals, which remain qualifying PSLF employers. PSLF is fully operational for nurses at those employers right now.

It’s understandable to be nervous — PSLF has been targeted politically for over a decade, going back to the Obama years. But the changes have consistently been forward-looking. They affect future rules, not the qualifying payments you’ve already earned and certified. The practical step is the same as always: certifying your employment each year keeps your payment count current and surfaces any problem early. Payments many nurses feared they’d lost during the COVID pause were largely credited back through the one-time income-driven repayment account adjustment.

Repayment programs pay a large chunk of your loans up front in exchange for working in a designated shortage area for a set term — no decade-long wait like forgiveness. Award amounts and open cycles change every year, so the figures below are a starting point, not a current quote; each program posts its live cycle and amounts.

Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program. Run by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), it repays up to 85% of your nursing-school debt — 60% over two years of service, with an optional 25% for a third year. It’s open to registered nurses, advanced practice registered nurses, and nurse faculty who work at a critical shortage facility or an eligible nursing school. The award is taxable income, which sets it apart from the tax-exempt program below.

National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program. Also HRSA-run, the NHSC repays up to $75,000 for full-time primary-care clinicians in a Health Professional Shortage Area — up to $80,000 with a $5,000 award for Spanish-language proficiency — and the award is tax-exempt. It’s open to nurse practitioners, certified nurse-midwives, and psychiatric nurse specialists — not registered nurses or LPNs.

Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program. The IHS repays up to $50,000 of student debt for nurses who commit to a two-year term serving American Indian and Alaska Native communities, with the option to extend for additional years.

Perkins Loan cancellation. If you have a Federal Perkins Loan received on or before June 30, 2018 and work full-time as a nurse, you can have up to 100% cancelled over five years, in rising increments. You apply through your school or its Perkins servicer, not through Federal Student Aid.

Nurse Faculty Loan Program. If you become nursing faculty, the NFLP cancels up to 85% of an eligible loan over four years of teaching — about 20% a year for the first three years and 25% in the fourth. The loans run through participating nursing schools, and funding for new awards can pause between cycles, so a school’s current availability is worth checking.

Military loan repayment. The Army and Navy repay student loans for nurses on active duty — up to roughly $40,000 a year toward qualifying loans under their health-professions repayment programs — though amounts, service terms, and eligible specialties vary by branch. The Air Force leans more on scholarships than loan repayment. Current terms are worth confirming with a recruiter.

Nursing-home service program. A newer federal program run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services repays up to $40,000 in student loans, plus a stipend of up to $10,000, for nurses who commit to working in a qualifying skilled nursing facility, aimed at staffing shortages in long-term care. Applications are expected to open when the program launches, so its current status is worth checking before you count on it.

Beyond federal programs, many states and individual hospitals repay nursing debt to attract and keep staff.

State programs. States run their own repayment programs, usually for nurses who work in rural or underserved areas for a few years. Awards, eligibility, and deadlines vary widely. Start with our overview of state student loan forgiveness, then check for a program in your state — we cover several in depth, including Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, and Arizona.

Hospital and employer programs. Many hospital systems offer loan repayment or tuition reimbursement as an employee benefit, often with a service commitment of a year or more. These are set by your employer, not the government, so the amounts and rules differ from place to place. Your human resources department can tell you what your system offers — worth weighing when you compare job offers.

The right combination depends on your loans, your employer, and how long you can commit to a location.

You work at a government or nonprofit hospital. Your employer already qualifies for PSLF, and the forgiveness is tax-free. PSLF requires your federal loans to be Direct Loans on an income-driven plan, with your employment certified each year.

You work — or would work — in a shortage area. Nurse Corps and NHSC pay off large shares of your debt in two to three years, instead of the decade PSLF or income-driven forgiveness take. The trade-offs are a service commitment tied to a specific site and, for Nurse Corps, a tax bill on the award.

You’re a travel or agency nurse. Travel assignments usually run through staffing companies, and a staffing agency isn’t a qualifying PSLF employer — so PSLF generally won’t build while you travel, though income-driven repayment forgiveness still applies no matter who you work for. The guide to student loan forgiveness for travel nurses covers how the timing works.

Your employer doesn’t qualify for PSLF. Income-driven repayment still forgives your balance after 20 to 30 years, regardless of where you work, and keeps your monthly payment tied to your income in the meantime.

You have private nursing-school loans. No federal forgiveness program will touch private debt. State programs or an employer benefit may help, but refinancing a private loan only changes your rate — it doesn’t forgive anything. And refinancing a federal loan into a private one gives up PSLF, income-driven forgiveness, and every program above — a trade you can’t undo.

One caution if you’re on a federal forgiveness track: taking out a new federal loan or consolidating on or after July 1, 2026 can change which repayment plans your existing loans qualify for. That matters most if you’re close to forgiveness, where a new loan’s effect on your plan is worth knowing before you borrow.