OBJECTIVES: In the Hungarian emergency departments (EDs) it became necessary to hire nurses with wider competencies but there is no a nationally unified policy and training for them. Our aim was to determine the knowledge about the physical examinations of nurses working at EDs with the different scope of practices (triage nurses, departmental heads of nurses, general nurses). METHODS: Twenty-three Hungarian emergency departments was examined, a questionnaire was completed by the departments’ nurses (n=301) and physicians (n=159).  SPSS 16.0 software was used for statistical analysis, khi-square test was used to determine correlations. RESULTS: A total of 71.5% of nurses have learned in some way the physical examinations wich did not present significant difference between the groups determined by nurses’ scope of practice (p=0,228). Triage nurses and the departmental heads of nurses examine significantly more times for example the cardiovascular system (p<0.001) and touch the stomach (p=0.032) than departments’ general nurses. Emergency physicians would make the nurses done more diagnostical duties than they presently do in everyday practice for example examining the cardiovascular system (p<0.001) and the chest (p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Even majority of emergency nurses have learned in some way the physical examinations, they admitted a low rate of usage in the everyday practice. In contrary, physicians would place the physical examinations among the tasks of nurses possessing adequate qualification, thus extension of the competencies of nurses is necessary.