Tense nurse speaks about damn silly instructions for man taking tablets (3,12)
I believe the answer is:
ten commandments
'tense' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'nurse speaks about damn silly instructions for man taking tablets' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'nurse' could be 'en' (abbreviation for state-enrolled nurse) and 'en' is found within the answer.
'about' could be 'c' (abbreviation for circa) and 'c' is found in the answer.
an anagram of 'damn' is 'mand' which is located in the answer.
'for' could be 'to' (eg both can mean 'in the opinion of') and 'to' is found in the leftover letters.
'man' could be 'n' (knight, a man in chess) and 'n' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for ten commandments that I've seen is " Orders from on high".)