On the Structure of Time With Implications for Nursing

Authors

  • Erna Schilder

Abstract

ON THE STRUCTURE OF TIME Introduction The importance of a person's time structure has barely been explored in nursing. Since periodicity has increasingly been recognized as an important variable in a person's functioning, studies on biorhythms have received greater emphasis in recent years1, 2. But these rhythms do not seem to provide any useful explanation of time experience. The judgment of the passage of time, the subjective importance of differences in emphasis on time among people has hardly been investigated. Like all physiological responses, time judgment must also depend on metabolic reactions. It stands to reason that any condition which affects the metabolic rate and influences perception will alter the subjective estimation of time. The judgment of time passage is a learned skill and is influenced by the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the individual's environmental experiences as well as by the subjective interpretation of the perceived events. To individualize nursing interventions, an effort needs to be made to develop objective measurements for monitoring a patient's progression and eliciting predictable responses. The time structure and the effect it has on a person's behaviour and functioning in a given environment needs to receive greater attention in nursing. A. The Development of a "Sense of Time" The concept of time, as far as we can know, is unique to man. An animal may remember past events but the concept of a "past" and even less of a "future" is outside of its experiential knowledge. It follows that a non-human creature experiences only the present and cannot conceive the inevitability of its own death. Probably this realization of finitude, rather than the discovery of fire, separated man from the rest of creation and directed the destiny of civilization. A person's view of life and

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Published

1981-04-13

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Articles