Since 2019, the world has been experiencing a pandemic period due to the COVID-19 virus, which has brought the need for organizations in general, healthcare organizations and their professionals in particular, to focus on innovation as a way to fight an utterly unknown virus. Thus, this study aims to understand how nurses and their personal factors (stress, anxiety, work engagement, organizational support) impact their innovative behaviour and innovation outputs, contributing to innovation in the current pandemic period through changes in thoughts, values, behaviours and relationships among healthcare professionals and their organizations. For this purpose, the Job Demands-Resources model was used as a reference, and the measurement instrument was applied to 738 nurses working in healthcare units in Portugal. Therefore, it was found that the nurses’ personal factors have a positive effect on the nurses’ innovative behaviour and innovation outputs, with the innovative behaviour having the most significant impact on innovation outputs, which will benefit healthcare organizations and the healthcare provided to patients during the pandemic, through innovative behaviours and products. It is also possible to understand how the available resources and the demands imposed on nurses interfere with their innovative behaviour (Job Demands-Resources model).

The main objective of this study is to assess how cognitive styles promote individual entrepreneurial orientation (IOE) and intrapreneurship and how they drive innovation among nurses in the healthcare services in Portugal. A total of 667 nurses participated, by completing an online questionnaire in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, working in different health units in Portugal. PLS-SEM structural equation modelling was used as a data analysis technique. The results show that cognitive styles have a positive influence on nurses’ IOE; that cognitive styles have a positive influence on intrapreneurship, which is mediated by the IO; that the IOE impacts nurses’ intrapreneurship and innovation, which is mediated by intrapreneurship; and that intrapreneurship impacts nurses’ innovation. The originality of this study lies in the absence of studies showing relationships between the dimensions that we propose to analyze during the pandemic of COVID-19.