Objective To investigate and analyze career anchor status of nurses working in emergency department of 3A hospitals, and to provide a reference for human resource management in emergency nursing. Methods Convenience sampling method was used to select 412 emergency nurses from 7 3A hospitals in Guizhou Province, and the Career Anchors Scale was used to survey them. Results The nurses were divided into 7 subgroups per their career anchor scores in descending orders as follows: lifestyle oriented, safety/stability oriented, pure challenge oriented, technology/function oriented, entrepreneurship/creativeness oriented, service/dedication, autonomy/independence, and comprehensive management.The proportion of safety/stability type among female emergency nurses was higher than that among male nurses, while the proportion of autonomy/independence type among female nurses was lower than that among male nurses （P＜0.05 for both）.The proportions of safety/stability type among various age groups had significant differences （P＜0.01）; the proportions of technology/function oriented type among nurses with various lengths of service, education levels and professional titles also had significant differences （P＜0.05 for all）. Conclusion The career anchors of emergency nurses in the tertiary general hospitals of Guizhou Province are mainly lifestyle oriented, and safety/stability oriented.Factors such as gender, age, educational background, and length of service take a substantial weight on career anchors of emergency nurses, highlighting that emergency nursing managers should take targeted measures associated with these influencing factors, in an effort to reduce emergency nurses′ turnover rate.