Objectives: to understand the work process dimensions related to innovative actions developed by nurses in Primary Health Care.
Methods: qualitative, descriptive study, developed in Primary Health Care in a city in the Southern Region of Brazil. Seventy-six nurses, who worked in management and assistance, participated in this study through semi-structured interviews. After data processing by IRAMUTEQ software, the textual analysis occurred by descending hierarchical classification.
Results: forty-two innovative actions, considered by the participants as new ways of working, were identified. There was a predominance of innovative actions related to the Management and Assist dimensions; we noticed the fragility of the actions to contemplate all the nurse's work process dimensions.
Final considerations: the predominance of innovative actions was related to users' assistance and better conditions in the teamwork process, besides highlighting the role of nurses in the perspective of a new way of working in health services.