Just wanted to add my comments regarding student nursing, the stress, and the job shortage...
The stress of nursing school is enormous. It is unrelenting, constant, and you're always operating in high gear. There is no 'down time'. One school in my area had two suicides this year...and we lost a classmate to an auto accident due to lack of sleep. Then the boards come. You spend all your waking hours studying, and your dreamtime is filled with anxiety dreams. There are few people in my class who are not taking medications to help with anxiety, depression, or sleep disturbances. It is an utterly overwhelming and insanely stressful time in the life of a nurse.
The fact that very few new grads are getting jobs also is a significant worry. Students graduate with great grades, but as was stated upthread, there are few jobs for a new grad. One year experience is what I see on all the openings in my area, and we can't find jobs to get that experience. Personally, I want to go into a relatively tough area, so there are programs for me to go to...but most folks don't get hired right away.
Additionally, the ADN program degree - which is what most places offer - is no longer acceptable to a lot of places. The shift towards a BSN or Masters is preferred, and often, applicants are not even looked at unless they are enrolled in a BSN or Master's program. That narrows the field down even more.
Add to all that the stress of having to pay back loans. Most government student loans have a 6 month period after you graduate where you don't have to start making payments. But at the 6 month time, you do. Income needs to be in place to actually start paying those loans back, right? But if one can't find work, one can't start paying back the loans...and so on.
She may not have appeared stressed, but I can personally assure you she was...and likely highly so. Including stress, she was probably discouraged. Add to that family fights (mild or not), and things can go 'snap' in someone's world...I'm struggling to keep my head, and I'm not even in her shoes yet.
While some/all of this information may not pertain to her being missing, I think that a better understanding of the stress and enormous pressure that a student nurse and/or a new grad is under may help understand why she was upset about handing out flyers for her sister, arguing, and perhaps just needing some downtime at B/N or the gym. It may also contribute to her not being as aware of her surroundings as she normally would be, or doing things that are not in her normal pattern of behavior.
And I also think that the call to her former boss was likely to find out if there was any work available; if she was facing student loan repayment in the near future, that would be a good reason to call him...or to get a letter of recommendation from him so that she can have a more full resume and be able to show that she is a good employee, instead of just a student nurse/new grad looking for a job in a market which is tight, tight, tight.
And please also don't forget that California's budget is non-existant, and there are cutbacks happening right and left. That will also affect the training programs that a new grad can access...
And at the bottom of it all, I am hoping and praying for the best for her.
Best-
Herding Cats
