Decisions Made By The Current Administration Affecting Healthcare
To our members of CWA 1168 and the public at large,
The Executive Board of CWA Local 1168 expresses deep concern and strong objection to the U.S.
Department of Education's recent decision to remove "professional" classification from several
healthcare and human-service disciplines, including:
- Counseling and Therapy
- Nursing
- Occupational Therapy
- Physical Therapy
- Physician Assistants
- Social Work
- Speech-Language Pathology
These fields are foundational to patient care and public well-being. Their practitioners deliver evidence-based services that directly improve health outcomes across all care settings. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, every one of these professions continued to report to work under extraordinary conditions. They were publicly recognized as essential and repeatedly identified as
"heroes." Nursing, in particular, has long been regarded as the most trusted profession in the United States.
To now categorize these roles as non-professional undermines the complexity, expertise, and critical nature of the work performed. This decision risks conveying to the public that these occupations are less vital to quality care, and it jeopardizes future educational funding and workforce development pipelines —at a time when shortages across these disciplines are already severe.
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Decisions Made By The Current Administration Affecting Healthcare
