All in a day’s work and play for three nurses

Kate Yeadaker Bueno connects with others through music and nursing.

Once a week, after her shift as a trauma operating room nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Fla., Kate Yeadaker Bueno slips out of her scrubs and into a dress and heels, swapping her long day as an RN for a late night as a deejay. “I love people and I love science, so nursing seemed the obvious choice in college,” says Bueno, 32, who definitely loves her job now. Her passions don’t stop there, though; since childhood her heart has belonged to music, too. Her grandparents were jazz musicians, her father played the conga drums and her mother was a connoisseur of everything from opera to the blues. “It was always my dream to become a deejay,” says Bueno. “So after nursing school, I thought, ‘Why not?’”

Nursing and deejaying? The two are completely in sync, as Bueno explains: “What’s required of me in both professions is to look out for others,” she says. “Whether I’m working in the hospital or at a party, my role is to make others feel good.” This corresponds to the compassion central to the Buddhist philosophy she embraces. It’s no coincidence that her stage name is DeeJay Dharma (dharma means “the way” or “the path” in Sanskrit) or that her dog’s name is Sachi (“happiness” in Sanskrit). “Music is universal. Everyone can relate to it. My whole life, music has been my way of connecting with others.”

To find the time to pursue both her passions, Bueno has had to learn her limitations. For example, she has cut her deejaying to no more than one night a week, and only when she has the next day off at the hospital. That allows her to get the rest she needs for her five shifts in the OR every week.

All of that was fine before she met her husband, Ariel, 34. Life was about nursing, deejaying and hanging out with her family, who live nearby. Now, though, she sees the beauty in—and need for—making time for herself and Ariel as a couple. The newlyweds love to watch foreign films and bike on the beach together. “It can be hard sometimes,” she says, “but when I want to get something done, I get it done.”

Sanity-Saving Strategies:

• Get enough sleep.
• Know your limitations.
• Prioritize—both the big “life” things as well as daily duties.
• Be determined. When you want something, go all-out for it.
• Make time for the people you love.
• Find your peace. (For me, it’s yoga, reading and being in nature.)