Abstract
What is a nurse in 2012? It is a presence at the heart of our privacy, care for our vulnerability, support until the whole of our lives and even after. This immemorial care remains the basis of the job. It is a care that calls for the past to look for a future, empathy and proxaemia trying to erase a demolished charity. But it is also a practical technique designed to help an orphan Humanity of solidarity in a society where only autonomy seems to be valued. It is still a care that has been requested on multiple occasions, in a transformation of our vision of health. Being a nurse in 2012 means learning and knowledge, in combination of constantly added knowledge and skills. But how can we deal with these societal changes, professional developments, representations in the care relationship, conflicting images of caregivers and sometimes painful experiences of caregivers? An ethical vision of the profession allows us to identify the qualities of reflection, adaptability, responsibility and communication throughout the rich relationship of the profession. Being a nurse in 2012 is to seek, in this disorder of ideas, through ethical and philosophical thinking, to build an academic and societal identity.