About Chitrakshi Jaitly

Chitrakshi Jaitly is a Relief General Manager at Respect, bringing together frontline nursing experience and operational leadership across regional and metro aged care services. After completing her Bachelor of Nursing in Australia, Chitrakshi progressed from Registered Nurse to senior management roles during the COVID-19 period, leading teams through some of the sector’s most challenging moments.

Now travelling across regional Victoria supporting facilities in transition, Chitrakshi is known for her compassionate, servant-leadership approach and her advocacy for connected systems, workforce sustainability, and person-centred care.

About Respect

Respect is a not-for-profit aged care provider delivering residential and community care services across Victoria, Tasmania, and New South Wales. With a strong focus on dignity, belonging, and community connection, Respect supports regional Australians to age in place while navigating the increasing operational and compliance demands of the sector.

Episode Insights: Regional Aged Care, Interoperability & Compassion in a Digital World

1. From Registered Nurse to Regional Leader, Leadership Born in Crisis

Chitrakshi shares how COVID accelerated her transition from clinical nursing into leadership, stepping into care management roles during staffing shortages and organisational upheaval.

💡 Insight: True leadership in aged care often emerges during uncertainty, when continuity of care depends on people willing to step up, learn fast, and lead with empathy.

2. Regional vs Metro Care: Same Standards, Very Different Realities

While expectations under the Quality Standards remain consistent nationwide, Chitrakshi highlights the stark contrast between metro and regional environments. Regional facilities benefit from deeper community connection and resident dignity, but face limited access to allied health, housing, and workforce pipelines.

💡 Insight: Regional aged care delivers strong human connection, but operates with far fewer resources, yet is held to identical compliance outcomes.

3. Workforce Shortages and the Hidden Cost of Sponsorship

To address staffing gaps, Respect now sponsors workers from overseas, helping maintain care minutes and RN coverage. However, Chitrakshi explains this introduces additional training burdens and cultural transitions that directly impact care quality.

💡 Insight: Sponsorship solves numbers, not capability. Sustainable care requires investment in onboarding, education, and long-term retention.

4. Housing: The Silent Barrier to Regional Workforce Growth

Even when staff are willing to relocate, regional housing shortages prevent long-term placement. Chitrakshi proposes government-supported accommodation and shared allied health hubs as potential solutions.

💡 Insight: Workforce strategy fails without infrastructure. Housing is now a critical determinant of regional care viability.

5. Digital Transformation on the Ground: Progress Meets Resistance

From handwritten clinical notes to digital platforms, aged care has rapidly modernised, but regional teams, often with long-serving staff, struggle with complex systems and IT-heavy workflows.

Chitrakshi advocates for simple, practical technology training designed for frontline realities.

💡 Insight: Digital adoption succeeds when tools are intuitive and designed with floor staff, not administrators, in mind.

6. Interoperability: “A Dream Come True” for Aged Care Leaders

Incident reporting, documentation, complaints, audits all currently sit across disconnected systems. Chitrakshi describes how a unified ecosystem could transform operational oversight and reduce administrative burden.

💡 Insight: Interoperability is not about replacing platforms. It is about connecting them to create clarity, visibility, and time back for care.

7. AI in Aged Care: Support Tool or Clinical Risk?

While AI improves compliance tracking and management reporting, Chitrakshi raises concern about over-reliance among newer clinicians, sharing real examples where clinical judgement was deferred to system alerts.

💡 Insight: AI should augment clinical thinking, not replace it. Human judgement must remain central to care delivery.

8. From Compliance-Focused to Learning-Focused Care

Chitrakshi challenges the sector’s heavy documentation culture, noting that meaningful care often goes unrecognised unless recorded. She calls for a shift toward learning, reflection, and genuine resident connection.

💡 Insight: When care becomes about proving instead of doing, compassion risks being crowded out by paperwork.

9. A Vision for Regional Aged Care: Streamlined, Connected, Human

Asked to describe the future in one word, Chitrakshi responds: Streamlined. A system where technology, leadership, and policy align, enabling regional services to thrive while preserving their community identity.

💡 Insight: The future of regional aged care depends on aligned funding, connected systems, supported workforces, and leadership grounded in empathy.

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