If you aren’t in the medical community, you may not have heard of this local blogger and author, who has been making medical professionals across the country giggle for years with her blog Nurse Eye Roll. Your friends who work in the medical field have probably heard of her — she has more than 18,000 followers on Twitter and 21,000 on Facebook and 16,000 on IG — and if they haven’t, send them a link to her blog or a copy of her book and thank us later for your newfound status as Coolest-Friend-Ever.
The lady behind Nurse Eye Roll is SouthPark-area resident Kati Kleber, BSN RN CCRN, and boy is she busy. From working PRN (on an as-needed basis) at a local hospital to instructing courses and editing content for NRSNG.com to doing mommy duty (daughter Hannah Joy was born in January), her days are full to the brim.
There’s more. In addition to her first book “Becoming Nursey,” a helpful yet humorous reference guide with the goal of making readers into confident, efficient nurses as quickly as possible, Kati is working on two more books due to publish this year by the American Nurses Association. Need a nap yet? We do.
So what does she do in her (limited) free time? Katie loves hanging out with her pups and her husband John Kleber, a Charlotte mental health professional who works with kids and families.
Here’s a typical day in the life of Nurse Eye Roll:
6:30 a.m. … I wake up to the sound of my daughter stirring in her crib from the camera app on my phone. She wakes up anywhere from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. If I am scheduled to work at the hospital, I get up at 5:15 a.m. to get there in time for report to begin at 6:45 a.m. I don’t do the snooze button. I don’t fall asleep easily, so when I’m up – I’m up! However, it does take me a little time to actually get out of bed. I usually set my alarm for a few minutes early to allow myself to wake up in bed. I like to scroll through my phone in bed and check Twitter, Instagram, the news app, and my email before hopping OOB. (OOB = nurse shorthand for out of bed)
7:30 a.m. … Feed, burp and change Hannah, then head downstairs to make breakfast or read and play with her. She’s back down for her second nap within 1.5 hours of waking so my husband or myself will play with her while the other makes breakfast. Usually we eat bacon, eggs, cheese, water, coffee, yogurt and fruit but if I’m getting up at 5:15 a.m. to work at the hospital, then just a protein shake and coffee. I almost always drink coffee at home to save money! Getting coffee on the go is a rarity and treat, but if I do that, it’s probably Starbucks (white chocolate mocha – hello!). When Hannah goes down for that second nap, or if she hasn’t woken yet but I’m up for the day, I’ll spend some quiet time reading my Bible and in prayer.
8:30 a.m. … Get dressed. I typically just grab something that’s comfortable that I feel good that isn’t too nice because it’s going to get spit up on it! If I’m going to work at the hospital, I lay my scrubs out the night before to avoid the frantic search for clean non-wrinkled scrubs in the early hours of the morning. As for a beauty routine, I use a Norwex body cloth and water to wash my face, lotion from the Honest Company, some light powder foundation and bronzer from Bare Minerals and some L’Oreal mascara. That’s it! If I’m going to work, I’ll throw some eye liner on as well. I shower at night so I’ll blow dry my hair if it’s still damp, straighten, pony tail. I also will do a go-time side braid as well.
9:30 a.m. … Get to work! After John or myself puts Hannah down for her first nap, I head upstairs to go start work from home. I have various projects that I work on for NRSNG.com, write for my blog, edit my book, interact with nurses on social, etc. I’ll do that until she wakes up. I then feed her again and John and I take everyone for a family walk around the neighborhood to get the pups out of the house. (Unless I’m working at the hospital. In that case, I’m running around the neuro ICU from 6:45 a.m. to about 7:30 p.m. If I get a break to eat, it’s usually not until 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Things change at the drop of a hat in the intensive care unit and days are incredibly unpredictable. I’m going from patient room to patient room, to the nurse’s station, to the supply room, to the med room, to the dictation room, and back again. It’s go go go go for 13 to 14 hours.)
11 a.m. … Hit the gym. If I’m caught up on work, I’ll do a home workout or yoga while Hannah is napping. Since having her, I haven’t gotten back into the swing of (workout) things yet. We live in a community with a gym in it that I love. It’s small but has everything we need. I’m a former college athlete, my husband is a former college coach and personal trainer, his parents own a gym in Illinois and his brother and brother’s wife are licensed physical therapists! I’m pretty well prepared/experienced on turning even the smallest gym into some place for a pretty decent workout. John usually writes workouts, and prior to having Hannah we both would workout three times a week at our little local gym nearby. We also have some home workout gear when we can’t get over there.
12 p.m. … Lunch time! We always eat lunch at home. I typically have a turkey sandwich, water, some sort of veggie (peppers, carrots, etc.), handful of fruit and a handful of Cape Cod chips (YUM).
2 p.m. … I’ll feed Hannah and then put her down for another nap and work while she’s asleep. I’ll try to throw in some laundry, do some cleaning and always have another cup of coffee. Typically, I’m recording videos for nursing students or writing test questions for various courses to ensure students understood the material, or write some blog posts.
4 p.m. to 5 p.m. …Â Hannah is usually waking up so I’ll feed her.
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. … John has usually left for work for a client meeting during her second nap and comes home anywhere from 6 to 8. I try to time dinner for when he’ll be home. If he had an earlier client or is working from home all day, we will make dinner together. If I make dinner, he does the dishes and if he makes dinner, I’ll do the dishes! It works out pretty well. One thing I enjoy doing is have a glass of wine or a new craft beer while making dinner if it’s my night to cook. Last year two friends of ours started a craft beer delivery service called Brewpublik (which has become wildly successful!) and they’ve introduced me to a bunch of beers I never thought I would enjoy. I’m really enjoying stouts and porters right now! But I won’t have one every night, but probably every other night while making dinner. Occasionally, I’ll do a Facebook Live event or Periscope video in the evening … But I’m usually done working after getting Hannah up from that second nap. She’s at an age where she can’t entertain herself and is not happy if she’s not being cuddled! So when she’s awake, I’m not working. Right now, we’re pretty limited on going out with our 4 month old. However, before we would probably go out once every week or so either to a friend’s or out to dinner. John and I love to try different restaurants since we live near the awesome restaurant scene in South Park, near the Park Rd Shopping Center and Montford. My latest favorite is Chopt (dreaming of that smoky bacon Russian dressing right now!) and Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar. That Momma Ricotta burger is no joke! We enjoy going to the breweries in NoDa with family/friends that live nearby. We have a great group of friends and family that we really enjoy spending time with, so it doesn’t really matter where, it just matters who! We have friends over, go to their place, or go out for a meal/drink.
7:30 p.m. … Bedtime for Hannah! Her routine starts at 7:30 p.m. and she’s asleep by 8:15 p.m. We will hang out for a little while and watch T.V., play cards, or just catch up with how each other’s day went. And if we didn’t have time to enjoy dinner together before she went to to bed, we will have dinner after.
9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. … Bed time for me! I’ll do Hannah’s routine, hang out with the husband and pups, shower, watch an episode of 30 Rock on the iPad, and then it’s lights out! If I worked at the hospital, I’m getting home after John has put Hannah down for the night. I get home, I immediately shower and change (because gross) and frantically eat because I’m starving and probably haven’t eaten for about eight hours and then quickly fall asleep. John’s bedtime depends on the NBA schedule! If I worked at the hospital, I usually can barely keep my eyes open while I’m eating dinner! Zzzz..
Weekends are for…..? Right now I’m working weekends so we don’t have to pay for daycare! It’s great but pretty exhausting. John has Hannah all day and they go grocery shopping, plan our meals for the week, hang out with family and make dinner!
