OBJECTIVE: to discuss the professors' conceptions about the ethical dimension of nurse training based on the relationships which this establishes with the competencies with the professional profile; and to identify the spaces and strategies for the teaching of ethics in this process. METHOD: A qualitative study delineated as a case study. The data was collected based on focus groups with professors from six undergraduate nursing courses in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, totaling 50 subjects. Based on the professors' discourse, the conceptions and mutual relations between professional competencies, the formative process and ethics were analyzed. RESULTS: The results were organized and the discussion explored through the thematic categories: The ethics constructed in the process of training nurses - the professors' conceptions, and spaces and strategies for the teaching of ethics in nurse training. CONCLUSIONS: The issue of ethics was shown to be transversal in the formative process. The study evidenced the challenge of creating spaces and strategies for teaching and fosters discussion about the new demands for changes placed upon the nursing schools, about the suitability of the care setting, and about the exercising of critical and problem-based education.
Education Nursing; Nursing Education Research; Ethics