When Launceston-based Audette Groenewold closed the curtains on the first part of her career and took up nursing, she’s literally telling it how it was.

Audette is the Senior Care Manager at Uniting AgeWell Newnham Community Aldersgate Village in Tasmania – quite a distance from where she started her career as a curtain maker in Western Australia.

Audette was raised in Perth, married at the age of 19, worked at a curtain company and by the age of 30 had five children – four girls and one boy. Then she and her electrician husband Robert moved to Tasmania for a sea change. And in 2008 Audette had enough of being a stay-at-home mum and enrolled to do a nursing degree at the University of Tasmania.

Audette worked at Launceston General Hospital for a year, and one day got a phone call from Aldersgate Village, where she had done her placement, asking her whether she wanted to do a few extra shifts.

The rest is history. Audette was one of the first graduate nurses in the Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) program, and started nursing full time at the Village. Her leadership qualities were quickly realised, and she was promoted to her current role in 2014. Now she’s participating in a Uniting AgeWell leadership course, with the aim of becoming a Residential Services Manager.

Audette is refreshingly honest about her entry into aged care. “There was a shortage of nurses, and I joined Aldersgate Village because they begged me to come! So I did, and I found myself becoming increasingly passionate about aged care and discovered that I had a huge affinity with older people.”

Audette admits there are plenty of other opportunities in aged care, but the reason she has stayed with Uniting AgeWell all these years, is because of its culture.

“I have always felt supported by Uniting AgeWell,” she explains. “They’ve mentored me, grown me, invested in me… They’re great to work with.”

Audette’s management style is collaborative and inclusive, and she is held in high esteem for being a great team player. During the recent COVID-19 lockdown, she emptied bins, helped serve the tea and cleaned out store rooms. “If a job needs to be done, then it’s all hands on deck to get it done,” she says.

Audette says the greatest challenge of the role is retaining staff, and to this end she manages them the way she has been mentored – encouraging them to be all that they can and not micro-managing them.

She is quite firm about empowering all staff, male and female. “I see the person, not their gender,” Audette says. “And I’m proud of how inclusive the organisation is on every level and how it embraces people from different backgrounds, ages and cultures.”

Her advice to anyone thinking of entering aged care: “Do it! It’s hard work, but it’s very rewarding.”

A work-life balance is important to Audette, and she loves spending time with her 18 grandchildren, reading novels and enjoys living with her husband on their five-acre smallholding they share with cows and sheep.

And no, in case you’re wondering, Audette doesn’t have curtains at home. She’s switched over to blinds for one reason only: “I don’t want to be making or repairing curtains ever again,” she laughs.