Introduction: Ethics is an essential element in all health professions, including nursing and strongly influence on improve the health of patients. Therefore, considering the importance of the issue of ethics in nursing practice and the results of various studies in the field of observance of ethical codes in nursing, the purpose of this study was to determine the observance of professional ethics principles and its relationship with demographic characteristics in nursing in Urmia.
Method: This research is a descriptive-analytic study that was carried out on 210 nurses that work in teaching hospitals of Urmia by using simple random sampling method. The data collection tool was a questionnaire including demographic information and questions about the performance of nurses in observance of professional ethics. The data were analyzed by using  descriptive and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t-test and ANOVA) by SPSS software version 20.
Results: Finding of study showed that the majority of nurses (93/3%) have well evaluated their performance in professional ethics and 4/8% had an average evaluation. Statistical analysis did not show any significant correlation between the demographic characteristics of nurses and professional ethics. ANOVA test result showed that the mean score of nursing professional ethics was not the same in different teaching hospitals and different wards of hospital.
Discussion and conclusion: Based on the results of this study and considering the necessity of observing professional ethics criteria in nursing practice that can play a significant role in improving and restoring the health of patients, Managers of health organizations can study the present situation and barriers to professional ethics through periodical evaluation of professional ethics from the point of view of nurses and patients and by providing the optimal conditions for nurses, they will take an effective step to better observe the standards of professional ethics.