Nursing Isn't a Professional Degree?
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“Love is the deepest form of knowledge, for it requires us to become what we know.” — Thomas Merton
When the Department of Education quietly reclassified nursing as something less than a professional degree,1 it may have looked like a bureaucratic update. But to those who understand the language of systems, such changes are never neutral. They are moral choices disguised as paperwork. To reclassify nursing is to reclassify care—to suggest that tending the bodies of others, holding vigil beside pain, and coaxing life back toward strength are not acts of mastery but sentimentality.
This is how societies reveal what they truly worship. We measure worth not by what we praise in speeches, but by what we credential and fund. And when a government tells its healers that their vocation no longer qualifies as “professional,” it reveals what the system worships: not care, but capital; not relationship, but return on investment.
To downgrade nursing is more than an insult; it is an ontological mistake. Nursing remembers that the human body is not a machine but a living ecology to be tended. Nurses witness the thresholds of birth and death. They translate between the measurable and the mysterious. They hold hands when the monitors go silent. If that’s not professional, what is?
This reclassification is part of a broader cultural illness: the slow killing of care-based ways of knowing. Philosopher Boaventura de Sousa Santos calls it epistemicide2—the erasure of knowledge traditions that arise from the feminine, the communal, the embodied. When we treat care as “less than professional,” we’re not just harming nurses; we’re participating in a metaphysical violence that severs society from the wisdom that sustains life. It’s the same logic that undervalues teaching, caregiving, social work, and parenting—the invisible labors that keep the world turning.
The Christian story offers a counter-logic. In John’s Gospel, Jesus kneels to wash his disciples’ feet—performing the most “unprofessional” act imaginable.3 The Teacher becomes the servant. The Holy chooses the posture of the caregiver. That moment was never meant to be sentimental; it was a radical reordering of value. It declared that the truest sign of holiness is the willingness to serve.
When we demote nursing, we are not merely reclassifying a field; we are desecrating an altar. We are saying that what is most Christlike in us—our capacity to hold, mend, and love—is not worthy of honor. That desecration will echo beyond hospitals and classrooms into the soul of our common life.
In the end, it is care, not control, that saves us. The nurse at the bedside, the mother at the table, the neighbor tending the wounded world, all are midwives of grace. They remind us that God’s presence is found not in efficiency but in intimacy, not in optimization but in love made visible through touch.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
Where do you see “ledger logic” diminishing the value of care in your community or workplace?
Who in your life embodies the sacred intelligence of care, and how might you honor them this week?
How do your own spiritual or professional callings invite you to “wash feet” in your context—to serve in love rather than status?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer For The Tender Hands
Holy One, Bless the hands that mend. The hands that change bandages, wipe tears, and hold shaking fingers through the night. Bless the ones who chart pain in silence and still find words of comfort. Bless the ones whose strength is mistaken for softness, whose courage is made invisible. Teach us again the sacred economy of love— where every act of care adds to the world’s repair. Make us dangerous with tenderness. Let our competence be compassion. Let our professionalism be love. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
The Profession of Care
Today, re-professionalize care in your own sphere.
Choose one small act of tenderness and perform it as though it were your vocation.
Make eye contact with a cashier. Sit beside someone who’s grieving without fixing them. Offer your presence as your credential.
If you’re a nurse, teacher, parent, organizer, pause for one moment and name your work as sacred.
If you’re not, remember that you still belong to the profession of care, the oldest calling in the world.
Let your attention be your offering. Let your gentleness be your protest.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
January 6, 13, 20, 2026 - Protest and Action Chaplaincy Training with Rev. Anna Galladay. This live, online training offers a framework for providing compassionate, grounded spiritual care during protests, advocacy gatherings, and social movements. Learn more here.
January 15, 2026, 7-8pm EST - FREE Online Webinar: When the Internet Hurts: The Hidden Online Dangers Facing Our Teens and How Faith Communities Can Respond, Join me in conversation with Sharon Winkler, survivor parent and nationally respected youth online-safety advocate. Sharon’s son, Alex, died at age 17 after experiencing cyberbullying and algorithmically targeted pro-suicide content. Since then, Sharon has dedicated her life to helping parents, educators, and faith leaders recognize online dangers and build safer communities for young people. Register here.
February 11th and 25, 2026 - Join Our “Building a Culture of Leadership Within Congregations” Cohort facilitated by Rabbi Benjamin Ross and me! A two-session course for ministers and faith leaders ready to strengthen how their congregations and ministries identify, develop, and support leaders. Learn more here.
July 19-24, 2026 - Join me and amazing co-facilitator, Victoria, on retreat in the back-country of beautiful Wyoming. The Art of Wilding is a 5-Day Expedition for Women Leaders. We will spend the week reconnecting to nature, exploring our inner landscapes for change, and engage the wisdom of spiritual teachings. Click here to learn more.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
Trump and his gang keep meting out these atrocities and nothing is really happening to stop them. Today it’s nurses which you don;t hear any big cries about and tomorrow, will it be doctors?
When will Americans finally say STOP???