"Our aged care sector is a nursing-led profession and for far too long they have been undervalued," Aged Care Association chief executive Simon Wallace told Checkpoint.
"I think what we've seen with Covid-19 is the tremendous value that they've delivered in keeping our old people safe through this really difficult time."
Wallace said he thinks the Ministry of Health has a responsibility to value the role of nurses in aged care.
"Aged care is a mainstream part of the health system, we have 40,000 beds, we are looking after very sick people and keeping them from admissions into public hospitals. We play a huge role, and they can't renege on the responsibility in terms of valuing our nurses, and that's gone on for far too long.
"The situation was compounded in 2018 when the government reached the settlement with public hospital nurses, and that's just seen that difference in those pay rates become even more."
Wallace said there are about 300 vacancies for aged care nurses, and the Aged Care Association is doing everything it can to train more New Zealanders.
"The border closure means that it's much harder for us to bring nurses in, even though that they are regarded as essential workers. There is a cap on the border in terms of how many people are coming through each day.
"And they are returning New Zealand and New Zealand residents and citizens. So it's very hard still for us to bring in nurses from overseas to fill those gaps.
"Even though they're essential workers there's a 250 cap on the number of people that are coming in each day… We're not getting those internationally qualified nurses and that we need to fill the gaps. Meantime we've got the DHBs poaching our staff, simply because they can pay more."
