ABSTRACT
Communication in the management of health and illness coalesces around identifying the boundaries and scope of a condition, person, professional, or situation associated with health or health care, and giving meaning to health status by “naming and defi ning its cause” (Thompson, 2000, p. 3). In doing so, the communication refl ects the reality suggested in the opening quotation. There are outcomes which emerge from communication about health and illness management that, in turn, constrain communication about health and illness management. Time as a resource is one such example. The meanings of resources such as time are constructed through three overlapping discursive fi elds of infl uence that blend in indistinguishable ways without persistent efforts to identify them (Parrott, 2004).
