Managers from New South Wales nursing homes have come together to brainstorm how their embattled industry can bounce back, amid fears of a mass exodus of "demoralised" staff, according to news site msn.com. A recent union survey revealed one in five aged care staff were considering leaving the sector in the next 12 months.

The figures were no surprise to nursing home CEOs who recently gathered in Sydney to discuss a way forward. Viv Allanson runs the Maroba nursing home in Newcastle and was worried about how staff were coping after years of dealing with COVID and the fallout from the Aged Care Royal Commission. "I've seen people leave the sector, they're not only burnt out, they're demoralised," she said.

Ms Allanson was also worried about succession planning. "I look over my shoulder and I see no one chasing me for my job and that is terrifying," she said. "There is no one to train up, no one wants these jobs. I think the regulator and the government should be very afraid of that."

Paul Sadler is the chief executive of peak body Aged and Community Services Australia and said the regulator needed to do more than call out bad behaviour. He said the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission should also be helping to lift standards.

"We know the regulator needs to call out poor practice and intervene where providers are doing a really poor job," he said. "But we need positive engagement so we're not focused solely on the things that go wrong, which can be really disempowering for our staff. "We need to focus on where we're doing well and promote that more widely."

Recruiters for the sector described the last two years as the 'perfect storm' for staffing. Alex McDonald is the managing director the Orchard Talent Group and said the pandemic had exposed staffing weaknesses in the sector. "We've got clients who are struggling to fill shifts, we've got a large casualisation of the workforce and immense burnout of staff," he said.

He described the number of aged care staff leaving their job each year as concerning. "Executive or board level churn rates are close to 40% for the last 12 months," he said. "Now that's a very large challenge and it's cascaded down the organisational structure.

"Middle management is 40%, and frontline staff around 50%, so we're seeing a significant shift in the workforce." But Mr McDonald remained optimistic about the future. "Think about if you're a worker in aged care, it's been incredibly challenging, you're tired, you're overworked, there's vacancies in rosters, but you're still turning up," he said.