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Summary Nurse managed triage in an emergency department has not yet been formally evaluated in France. Method: We have adapted the reception and waiting area as well as trained all the nurses to patient triage using a “Nurse Classification of Emergency Patients” (NCEP). This classification is based on an evaluation of a patient's clinical stability and need for medical care as defined in the clinical classification of emergency patients used by French emergency physicians. By analogy with this latter classification, the NCEP is made up of five classes corresponding with increasing priority at need for medical care (1 : low priority; 5 : high priority). We have compared -with the same staff- the duration of management and the satisfaction of patients consulting on Mondays between 8.30 AM and 12 PM before and after the creation of the triage nurse position. The duration of patient management was the sum of the waiting time within the reception area (between registration and medical examination) and the duration of the medical consultation itself. Patient satisfaction was evaluated in real time using questionnaires. We also have evaluated the workload during each period, using nursing, medical and medico-technique care ratings. Results: The workload was comparable without (n = 296) and with (n = 303) a triage nurse. Waiting time at the reception was significantly longer without than with a triage nurse for unstable patients class 3 (43 ± 39 min vs 32 ± 28 min) and class 4 (47 ± 59 min vs 12 ± 18 min) of the NCEP (p Conclusion: Creation of a triage nurse position allows a significant reduction of the waiting time for unstable patients and increases the satisfaction of the patients as a whole.