TIME FOR CLIENTS - TEMPORAL ASPECTS OF COMMUNITY PSYCHIATRIC NURSING

Time is an integral element in all actions, organizations and relation ships. Temporality has an effect on people's lives, and in turn people manipulate temporality as a means of imposing social order. From a se miotic perspective the amount of time spent on an action and the timin g of it conveys messages about such things as importance and status. T his holds equally true of organizations as well as individuals. This p aper concentrates on a community psychiatric nursing department, its s taff and clients. Sections of speech taken from interviews with nurses and clients are presented and discussed from the perspective of tempo rality to show how relationships are managed on an individual level an d how work is organized around different client groups at an organizat ional level.