Objective To develop a scale for measurement of nurse innovative behavior. Methods Nurse innovative behavior was defined on the basis of literature review. Three dimensions and 15 items were formulated by semi-structured interview among 12 nurses, and the items were screened with expert evaluation. Two hundred and thirty-four nurses in 2 hospitals in Shanghai were investigated with the scale, item analysis and exploratory factor analysis were conducted, and the reliability and validity of the scale were examined. Results Two hundred and six effective questionnaires were recovered, with the recovery rate of 88.03%. Through expert evaluation, item analysis and exploratory factor analysis, a 10-item Nurse Innovative Behavior Scale was developed, which included 3 factors (idea generation, support obtaining and idea realization) and was consistent with theoretical construct. These three factors accounted for 72.012% of the accumulated variances. The correlation coefficients between dimensions and total scale were higher than those between dimensions. The content validity index was 0.91, and the Cronbach´s α was 0.879. Conclusion Nurse Innovative Behavior Scale has a good reliability and validity, providing a tool to measure nurse innovative behavior.