Australia is not known for an abundance of female founders of new companies. The latest figures from the Startup Muster report show female founders are at around 22.3% and male founders at 77.15% so there’s still a long way to go before women are starting up as many companies as men.
But Kate Alexander is one of Australia’s female founders. She started her aged-care-at-home company – NurseWatch – in Sydney in 2016. She says she was motivated to start the company because she wanted to provide a model of care which aimed at “improving a person’s quality of life.”
As a fully trained nurse herself, she wanted to create an environment within the care-at-home industry where the carers were qualified nurses who held a Registered Nurse Certificate 3, because she felt this would provide “a new level” of professional care.
“That’s right,” Kate says. “I decided very early on to do something different and build the company with fully-trained staff so it had a different culture and full certification. Nursing is such a valuable profession and we can utilise people with this type of training more in the aged care industry I feel.”
Kate says she’s felt that home care has been looked on historically as a “cottage industry” and “it could do a lot better.”
“NurseWatch has a social wellness model of care and our point of difference is that we really focus on wellness and the social aspect of people’s lives,” she adds.
Australian economists have been praising entrepreneurs such as Kate, saying they are going to be a vital part of our economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The economist say these founders of companies will be a major boost to reviving our economy and moving us back in line with the quality of life we’ve been used to in the past.
NurseWatch is in tune with the latest government initiatives
As well as helping our economy recover, NurseWatch is in tune with some of the latest government initiatives which aim to keep 80% of aged care in the home by 2050. This is because as large numbers of Baby Boomers are growing older, aged care is booming in Australia but the aged care industry can’t cope with the big numbers so much of the care needs to stay in the home for as long as possible.
In tune with this, Kate was motivated to provide a care-in-the-home company to cater for these boomers, so NurseWatch tries to make aged-care-at-home as comfortable and refreshing as possible.
“We understand the current mindset of ageing people,” says Kate. “NurseWatch’s model is focused around affordable, premium care in the home because people want to remain living in their own homes for longer.”
“At NurseWatch, we’re set up to help people access quality care at home so they can age gracefully and comfortably in their own home and not have to move out to an aged care facility,” she adds.
Kate adds the majority of staff at NurseWatch are qualified, experienced nurses who can provide premium medical care but at the same time, also help facilitate enjoyable social experiences such as yoga and massage for their clients.
“Live it up, with our support”- says Kate Alexander, founder and CEO of NurseWatch
NurseWatch has been accredited with Global-Mark certification since 2019 – the internationally recognised standard for quality management system. Kate says she was keen to gain this accreditation because it assures clients that NurseWatch adheres to strict standards of safety within the workplace.
Kate adds she feels it’s important to have the Global-Mark certification, adding: “The Global-Mark certification builds a strong framework of consistent quality and ensures we provide care and services in the correct manner to our NurseWatch community.”
“The certification helps us to continuously build and improve a sustainable and resilient business,” she says.
NurseWatch Healthcare has been awarded other accreditations
NurseWatch is an aged-care-at-home company which has gone above and beyond to make sure it has all the appropriate accreditation’s for its customers. As compliance is one of the biggest issues confronting businesses in Australia, there’s a growing awareness in the community that everyone deserves a safe workplace, a safe environment and a quality product which will meet expectations.
As Kate says: “I feel confident because from very early on – virtually from day one – I’ve been making sure we have these accreditation’s There’s plenty of companies out there doing home care but I wanted to do something more.”
NurseWatch also has the Rainbow Tick accreditation which demonstrates the company’s commitment to being an inclusive organisation. NurseWatch is one of a few privately-owned companies in NSW to have achieved this national benchmark of inclusive care which demonstrates the company’s commitment.
What else does NurseWatch do?
NurseWatch offers care outside of the home as well as in the home. This means if a client needs to be picked up from hospital after a procedure, one of the nurses from NurseWatch can do this and provide any post-hospitalisation care that’s required.
Other services NurseWatch provides include taking a client to a medical appointment, wound care, medication assistance, chronic disease management, palliative care and LGBTI concierge services.
For more information on NurseWatch, click here.
Or call the NurseWatch team for more information on (02) 9167 8129.
