Nurses as drivers of innovation readiness: exploring innovative work behaviour in clinical practice

Innovation is essential for maintaining high-quality and accessible healthcare amid increasing complexity and workforce pressures. Within healthcare organisations, innovation readiness depends not only on stuctures and leadership but also on the behaviours of healthcare professionals. As the largest professional group, nurses are closely involved in daily care delivery and contribute to innovation readiness through innovative work behaviour (IWB). IWB is defined as the intentional generation, promotion and realisation of new ideas to improve work processes and outcomes. While research on innovation readiness has predominantly focused on organisational and leadership factors, the role of individual professional behaviour remains relatively underexplored. In addition, nurses’ innovative contributions are often under-recognised in daily clinical practice.

Given nurses’ central role in care processes, understanding how they perceive innovative work behaviour (IWB) is necessary for strengthening innovation capacity in clinical settings. The aim of this study is to explore how nurses perceive their own IWB within a university hospital. This study aims to contributes to greater visibility, discussion and understanding of IWB in daily nursing practice.

A qualitative exploratory-descriptive study was conducted. Ten nurses in diverse clinical and organisational roles, including staff nurses, nurse coordinators and nurses involved in shared governance councils, participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using a hybrid framework analysis approach which, integrated inductive coding with a nursing-specific innovative work behaviour model.

Nurses consistently demonstrated IWB, particularly in identifying problems and suggesting improvements. Those in coordinating or council roles were more involved in promoting, developing and applying innovative ideas. Reported barriers included limited time, unclear pathways for implementation. and reliance on organizational support beyond the nursing team to progress ideas. Innovation was frequently equated with technology, rendering informal and behavioural innovations less visible.

IWB appears more prevalent in nursing practice than is commonly assumed. At the micro level, nurses engage in a wide range of informal and behavioural innovations that often remain invisible in daily practice. To strengthen IWB at the meso level, organisations need to create conditions that allow space for bottom-up initiatives, recognise informal innovation efforts and support continuity across innovation stages, with nurse managers playing a key enabling role. At a broader level, both practice and research would benefit from a broader conceptualisation of innovation that extends beyond technology and incorporates nurses’ everyday IWB. Future research should examine how recognition of this behaviour can be strengthened and how this influences subsequent innovation processes.