Objective To understand the current status of humanistic care perception among emergency nurses and to explore its impact on work engagement, and to provide a reference for clinical strategies to improve nurses′ levels of care perception and work engagement. Methods A convenience sampling method was used to select 565 emergency department clinical nurses in Hubei Province as research subjects from December 2024 to January 2025. A general information questionnaire, the Nurses′ Holistic Humanistic Caring Perception Questionnaire, and the Chinese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) were used for the survey. Results The total score for overall humanistic care perception among emergency department nurses was (161.87±30.33) points, and the total score for work engagement was (45.88±12.41) points. There was a positive correlation between overall humanistic care perception and work engagement among emergency department nurses (r=0.816, P<0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that self-care, hospital management, patient and family care, and peers,colleagues,friends were the main influencing factors of work engagement behavior among emergency department nurses (all P<0.05), accounting for 71.6% of the total variance in work engagement. Conclusion The overall humanistic care perception among emergency nurses is at a moderate level; work engagement is at a moderately high level and is influenced by various care factors. Nursing managers need to optimize patient-doctor communication, create a positive atmosphere, arrange human resources reasonably, and provide self-care training to improve nurses′ humanistic care perception; regularly assess their perception levels, adjust strategies as needed, and thereby promote an increase in work engagement.