Högskolan i Skövde

Aim: The aim was to investigate older patient recovery (65 years+) up to two years following discharge from an intensive care unit (ICU) using the Recovery After Intensive Care (RAIN) instrument and to correlate RAIN with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD).

Methods: An explorative and descriptive longitudinal design was used. Eighty-two patients answered RAIN and HAD at least twice following discharge. Demographic and clinical data were collected from patient records.

Results: Recovery after the ICU was relatively stable and good for older patients at the four data collection points. There was little variation on the RAIN subscales over time. The greatest recovery improvement was found in existential ruminations from 2 to 24 months. A patient that could look forward and those with supportive relatives had the highest scores at all four measurements. Having lower financial situation was correlated to poorer recovery and was significant at 24 months. The RAIN and HAD instruments showed significant correlations, except for the revaluation of life subscale, which is not an aspect in HAD.

Conclusion: The RAIN instrument shows to be a good measurement for all dimensions of recovery, including existential dimensions, which are not covered by any other instrument.