Abstract
An evolving transformation in nursing ethics is examined in terms of two basic metaphors of the nurse's role and its norms and virtues. Early discussions of nursing ethics portrayed nursing as military service in the battle against disease, associated with the virtue of loyalty and with the norms of obedience and the maintenance of patient confidence in physicians as authority figures. During the past decade, a metaphor of the nurse as advocate of patients' rights has largely replaced the older image. The author supports this change while cautioning that attention should be given to clarifying the meaning of advocacy, revising state laws to allow for expanded nursing roles, educating patients to accept the nurse as advocate, teaching nurses to cope with controversy, and identifying a legitimate place for loyalty to one's associates.
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