Emergency nurses' experience in caring for unidentified patients: A qualitative study

•A descriptive qualitative research approach to explore more scientifically and comprehensively the psychological feelings of emergency nurses when caring for special groups of patients.•The deficiencies of the healthcare delivery system in the context of East Asian culture are explored and provide a reference basis for the reform of China's emergency medical service model.•In terms of research methodology, in order to increase the reliability of the qualitative study, the research team used a variety of ways to improve the validity of the study, all of which are described in detail in the paper.•While most of the existing studies have focused only on homeless individuals, this study focused on unidentified patients as a more prevalent emergency care clientele. To describe and analyse emergency nurses' experiences of caring for unidentified patients, and to provide a basis for constructing processes and standards of care for unidentified patients in the emergency department. This study is a descriptive phenomenological research that utilized purposive sampling. Sixteen emergency department nurses, who cared for unidentified patients between June and September 2023, were selected for semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Data were analyzed using Colaizzi's 7-step method to identify and refine themes. Three themes were distilled: (1) increased workload, (2) increased mental stress at work, and (3) material needs and external environmental support. Emergency nurses have more complex negative emotional experiences when dealing with unidentified patients and want more external support to cope with such patients. Hospital administrators should pay full attention to nurses' caregiving experiences and provide positive interventions.