Understanding human behavior is at the heart of the nursing discipline. Knowledge development about behavior is essential for guiding nursing practice in the clinical field, for nursing education or in nursing management. In this context, ethnography is often overlooked as a research method for better understanding types of behavior in their sociocultural environment. This article aims to present the principles guiding this qualitative method and its application to nursing research. First, the ethnographic method and some of its variants will be described. The conduct of an ethnographic study will then be exposed. Finally, examples of ethnographic studies in nursing will be presented. This article provides a foundation for the development of research protocols using ethnography for the advancement of nursing knowledge, as well as better use of ethnographic findings to improve care practices.