This essay examines ethical considerations in the nurse patient relationship, in particular the relationship between "professional morality" and the nurse's professional identity in the role of advocate for doctors, patients, and hospitals. A discussion of ethics and professionals explores professional ethics, the need for such ethics, and their expression in licensing and certification, where it is recognized that consumer interests are primary. The paper then expands on the notion of the nurse as professional and the definition of consumer protection interests. This section examines the four quintessential ethical duties that nurses owe their clients: autonomy, nonmalfeasance, beneficence, and justice; discusses the conflicts in the "right-to-die" movement; and lists solutions to ethical dilemmas. The following section explores three models by which nurses construe their professional relationships with patients: the nurse bureaucrat or hospital advocate, the nurse as physician advocate, and the nurse as patient advocate. The essay goes on to present an argument for the moral superiority of the nurse patient advocate model based on the importance of informed consent and nurses' frequent encounters with informed consent. A final section examines nursing curricula in light of the nurse as patient advocate model. Included are 14 references. (JB)