Fostering employee well-being and creating positive workplace culture provides important competitive advantages for recruiting workers. The key factor influencing well-being at work is the
intrinsic motivation experienced by employees. Ryan and Deci’s self-determination theory on
human motivation distinguishes intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Three basic psychological needs that must be satisfied to foster intrinsic motivation are autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The aim of the study was to describe surgical nurses’ experiences with their intrinsic work motivation. A descriptive qualitative study was conducted at a single Finnish hospital. For data collection, 12 nurses participated in three focus-group interviews. Deductive and inductive content analyses were used. The experience with autonomy refers to the possibility of having influence and a sense of control over one’s work. The experience with competence arises from meaningful work tasks, self-efficiency and feedback. The experience with relatedness relates to doing good for others and feeling a sense of community and an appreciation of one’s profession on a social level. Making managerial appreciation visible in workplace communities and developing methods for daily feedback could improve opportunities for nurses to experience intrinsic motivation and thus increase well-being at work.