The primary objective of this article is to investigate how to manage nursing professionals through leadership to generate positive behaviours and attitudes in relation to the hospital in which they work. The purpose of our research is to identify the kind of work environment that should be offered by hospital leaders to their nursing staff to generate job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour within their field of expertise. To achieve this objective, a survey was offered to 410 nurses and 1,619 nursing technicians working inside five private hospitals in Brazil. The shortages of nursing professionals and also their high turnover have become a global issue (Jenaro et al., 2010; Robson and Robson, 2016). However, a good internal climate can reduce turnover, promote work engagement and this way improve the quality of patient care and motivate these professionals (Jenaro et al., 2010; Lu et al., 2012; Körner et al., 2016). In this context, creating a positive internal climate for nursing professionals is pivotal to retaining this valued staff. However, there is no consensus on what factors determine a positive internal climate among nursing professionals (Utriainen and Kyngas, 2009). Two trends emerged in the 80s: the first one emphasized psychological factors promoting a view that work fulfils or allows for the fulfilment of important values for professionals in the health sector. The second one pointed out factors related to the work environment such as acknowledgement, adequate team size, autonomy and appropriate facilities for patient care. Later in the 90s, the satisfaction of nursing professionals started to be regarded as a complex terminology made up of both objective and subjective factors such as autonomy nature and level, authority and responsibility, acknowledgement, reward and personal satisfaction towards the work performed and a perspective of growth in the career. Patient care was considered paramount for nurse satisfaction (Jenaro et al., 2010; Utriainen and Kyngas, 2009). In this sense, this study is important and relevant because it contributes to elucidate the factors that can promote a good internal climate for nursing staff besides assisting hospital leaders to face the huge managerial challenges of managing, retaining and advancing these professionals.