Background: The coronavirus outbreak in 2019 has created unprecedented pressure on health care staff and material resources such as PPEs, Ventilators, Oxygen supplies, hospital beds etc. Ensuring an adequate supply of nurses to maintain a high standard of care and safe infective care practices in the phase of the increased patient load is a huge challenge for all stakeholders. Utilizing non-ICU nurses for ICU care is an option. However, factors that influence the optimal selection and coping behaviour (resilience) of a non-ICU nurse are not well examined. In this paper, we “adopt a mixed method design” to determine the suitable specialty staff for ICU attachment during a pandemic. I will emphasise the significance of educational training and preparation of critical care on non-ICU nursing staff in relation to their adaption and coping level throughout this study. Methods: We selected 76 samples (eight males and sixty-eight females) by “non-probability convenient sampling”. We used a survey for data collection lasting 8 weeks. Results: The study revealed that most of the staff (75%) met the prepared objectives of the orientation program. Approximately 90% of the staff agreed that they are able to take care of critically ill patients with minimal supervision. Further, 29% of the staff stated that psychological preparation & staff readiness are the first priorities to be considered before ICU attachment. Staff age, marital status, gender, qualification, area of experience, and years of experience did not influence staff coping mechanisms. Conclusions: In shortage of ICU staff in case of a pandemic, staff with neurology and neurosurgery background showed a higher confidence and coping level to ICU stressful environment. Furthermore, staff with other clinical backgrounds can work effectively during this circumstance with organized training, preparedness plan, effective clinical follow up and psychological support. All these factors facilitate the coping mechanism.

Buthaina Mubarak Al Harthy holds a Master of Science in Advanced Professional and Clinical Practice (Acute and Critical Care) from Queen's University Belfast (UK) and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Villanova University (USA), earned on May 16, 2010. She is currently working at Khoula Hospital in the Sultanate of Oman, where she serves in administration as a unit nurse. Previously, she was the in-charge of the Burns Unit and a clinical educator for the surgical department. She also has experience as a staff nurse in the obstetric ward