From the hypothesis that the exclusive use of monetary incentives may undermine intrinsic motivation of health professionals, causing the opposite effect to that intended, this paper analyzes the factors that are associated with intrinsic motivation of professionals responsible for nursing management. To this end, we designed a questionnaire on Work Motivation in Nursing Management based on Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI), which was distributed at the National Conference of Supervisors of Nursing (Bilbao, 2010). After analyzing the results, we obtained a motivational profile that can guide health managers in the redesign of a system of incentives that, aligned with professional values, influence the efficient performance of health workers, and to invest in a new type of capital that we call "motivational capital".