Objective: To study levels of core competency of accident and emergency nurses as perceived by nurses in public hospitals under the Ministry of Public Health in the three southern border provinces.

Research design: Descriptive research

Materials and methods: One hundred and fifty emergency nurses who were working in the emergency department (ED) of hospitals with at least 30 beds and had been working at the ED for more than 6 months were selected by systematic random sampling technique. Subjects were asked to self-evaluate their competency levels using a questionnaire. After that the questionnaires were collected by head nurses working at the ED and returned to the researcher. Response rate was 100%.

Result: Overall core competency of accident and emergency nurses in public hospitals under the Ministry of Public Health in the three southern border provinces was at a moderate level (51.3%). When considering levels by dimension, the only dimension at a high level was the competency of coordination (57.3%); The other five levels were at moderate level: core competency of leadership (56.7%); core competency of decision making (55.3%); core competency of problem solving (54.7%); core competency of nursing knowledge related to accident and emergency care (53.4%); and core competency of teamwork (50.0%).

Conclusion: The overall core competency of accident and emergency nurses in public hospitals under the Ministry of Public Health in the three southern border provinces was at a moderate level. This indicates a need for further improvement in the competency of accident and emergency nurses in order to enable them to provide effective nursing care.