[Emergency patient care department problems have recently come to the fore, especially in terms of waiting times and triage activity. It is still not entirely clear to society what is the triage system is, what is it good for, and who is the person, who applies the classification of patients. There is countless conflicts and tensions in the process of health services due to lack of knowledge. In Hungary, emergency departments play a prominent role in healthcare. Increased patient flow is a global problem, and therefore a distinction should be made between the „door to physician time” of the patients. The so-called grading system (triage) has been developed for this purpose, during which an experienced qualified nurse will measure and assess the patient’s condition as quickly as possible on the basis of different criteria. In my communication, I present the triage activity, the use of the classification system, what the triage nurse is doing, by comparing two cases. ]

[A part of the emergency patient care system is paediatric emergency care, the organisation and management of which must take place in accordance with the same guiding principles and consensuses as adult emergency care. Owing to the special requirements stemming from the children’s age, anatomy and physiology, the assessment, categorisation, diagnostics, therapeutic interventions and implementation of the nursing process require special knowledge, skills and competencies in comparison to adult emergency care. The paper describes the process of patient admission and triage in intra-hospital paediatric emergency care in Hungary, with regard to the related nursing competencies. ]

[A key factor in the successful and efficient operation of any emergency department is the rapid and precise classification of patients, following a preliminary examination, for the purpose of determining the order in which to provide treatment. A prerequisite for applying this procedure is the satisfactory regulation of the process, which also involves the appropriate management of human resources, the provision of training, the clear definition of competencies, and management of patient careers. The author introduces the triage process suitable for application at emergency wards in Hungary, through adaptation of the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale. ]

[Ambulance nurses often deal with complaints of chest pain, both when working independently and when on call in an emergency ambulance or quick response vehicle. It is essential that they know as much as possible about any life-threatening symptoms, and are as up-to-date with the latest skills when attending patients. This also helps teamwork and efforts to ensure an improvement and the proper treatment of the patient’s condition (in the context of an ambulance nurse’s duties). This all requires a knowledge of differential diagnosis, which gives a broad outline of the diseases that could potentially underlie the chest pains suffered by a patient who calls an ambulance. The more in-depth theoretical knowledge also promotes an understanding of the importance of intervention by ambulance crew/doctors in the case of certain diseases, the importance of the time factor, and the reason for urgency even if the patient’s condition does not appear serious at first glance. In the light of these factors the authors have undertaken to provide readers with new, evidence-based knowledge.]