Abstract: Objective: To describe the nurses' innovative behavior, and to explore the effects of head nurses empowering behavior and research innovation leadership on it, so as to provide reference for cultivating nurses' innovative ability. Methods: A total of 905 clinical nurses from 5 tertiary grade A hospitals in Xi'an were selected by convenience sampling from October to December 2023. General data questionnaire, nurses' innovative behavior scale, head nurses' empowering behavior scale and head nurses' scientific research innovation leadership scale were used to collect data. Results: The total score of nurses' innovative behavior was 32.18±6.28. The results of regression analysis showed that empowering behavior and research innovation leadership of head nurses, education background of nurses were the main influencing factors of nurses' innovative behavior (P<0.05), which accounted for 53.5% of the total variation. Conclusion: The innovative behavior of nurses was at the medium level. The head nurse can further enhance the innovative behavior of nurses by more empowerment and improving the leadership in scientific research and innovation of themselves.

Key words: nurse; innovative behavior; head nurse; empowering behavior; research innovation leadership