Is There Such a Thing As Loan Forgiveness For Nurses

It is rather common for nursing graduates to complete nursing school with the burden of student loans and the only way out seems to be going in for loan forgiveness for nurses. Well, due to a shortage of nurses in the country, many healthcare facilities and even certain state governments are offering loan forgiveness for nurses. This simply means employers are offering to reimburse a portion or even all of the student loan the nursing school graduate had taken up.
This is but one of the incentives offered by some hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, hospice or any healthcare facility to attract more nursing staff. However, there is almost always a catch to this loan forgiveness offered by these employers. A contract to tie you down for two years or more may be part of the agreement. While this may seem trivial or even a good idea so that you will have a secure job for the next two years, bear in mind that it may also mean you are stuck at the facility or hospital for at least two years even if you are unhappy with it.

Making your student loan payments may not be all that difficult each month if you were to secure a stable, higher paid job. So, it is not necessary for you to look for an employer that promises tuition reimbursement or loan forgiveness. It may even be to your advantage to seek for an employer that pays more than to seek for one that offers this extra incentive to pay down a portion of your student loan. Lets say you have a student loan of $ 15,000 to pay down and an employer had offered to pay $ 3,000 in tuition reimbursement in the first year and then tie you down in a contract for two years. Then there is another employer that pays you $ 400 more than the first employer in terms of monthly salary. This means, you would earn extra $ 4,800 in the first year which you could have used to settle some of your student loan. If you had chosen the first employer, it would mean you will suffer a ‘loss’ of $ 1,800 and yet be tied down to a two-year contract.

That’s why it is always a good idea to check the details of the offer before signing the contract just because you want the tuition reimbursement. You may need to read the fine print of the contract to see if you are still eligible for the loan forgiveness if you were to leave a few months before the end of the contract or even midway through the contract period.

It is common for students in nursing or other sectors, to take up student loans to pay for their education. Servicing the loan may seem difficult and daunting especially for fresh graduates who do not have a single penny to their name. Well, do not worry too much about it. As long as you get a stable job with a stable income, you will need to remember to set up a loan repayment plan so that you are able to pay down you loan fast. After all, the interest rates are rather high too and paying down the loan is the only way to stop your interest rates to accumulate into a large sum within a two-year period.