Watchful attendants acknowledge dark time and tend to skittish leader (5,6)

'watchful attendants acknowledge dark' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'time and tend to skittish leader' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 'night' (night is a kind of time).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'tend' becomes 'nurse' (as in tending or nursing a patient).
'to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'leader' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'skittish' is 's'.
'night'+'nurse'+'s'='NIGHT NURSES'

Can you help me to learn more?