Dewar, JanCook, CatherineSmythe, ElizabethSpence, Deborah2023-11-232023-11-232023-11-05Nursing Inquiry, ISSN: 1440-1800 (Print); 1320-7881 (Online), Wiley, e12613-. doi: 10.1111/nin.126131440-18001320-7881http://hdl.handle.net/10292/16988This study articulates the relationship between conceptualisations of time and the accounts of good care in an acute setting. Neoliberal healthcare services, with their focus on efficiencies, predominantly calculate quality care based on time-on-the-clock workforce management planning systems. However, the ways staff conceptualise and then relate to diverse meanings of time have implications for good care and for staff morale. This phenomenological study was undertaken in acute medical-surgical wards, investigating the contextual, temporal nature of care embedded in human relations. The study interviews involved 17 participants: 11 staff, 3 previous patients and 3 family members. Data were analysed iteratively to surface the phenomenality of temporality and good care. The following constituents of the data set are explored that together illustrate the relationship between the conceptualisations of time and the accounts of good care in an acute setting: patient time as a relational journey; patient time, sovereign time and time ethics and time, teamwork and flow. The findings are clinically significant because they offer a contrasting narrative about the relationship between time and care quality. The experiences of giving and receiving good care are indivisible from how temporality is experienced and the social relations within which care is embedded. Healthcare staff experience temporality differently from patients and families, a point that healthcare participants in this study appeared to comprehend and accommodate. For all parties involved in providing care or being the recipient of care, however, the capacity to be present was valued as a humanising ethic of care. Our study reinforces the importance of not creating presumptive binaries about which temporal structures are more or less humanising-there is a place for a fast-paced tempo, which can be experienced as being in the flow of human relations with one's team and on behalf of patients.© 2023 The Authors. Nursing Inquiry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/good carehealth professionalshospital carenursesphenomenologytemporalitytime4203 Health Services and Systems4205 Nursing42 Health SciencesClinical ResearchHealth Services8 Health and social care services research8.1 Organisation and delivery of servicesGeneric health relevance1110 NursingNursing4204 Midwifery4205 NursingJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1111/nin.12613