To develop a core competency training curriculum system for emergency trauma nurses in China.A modified Delphi study design.The selection criteria for participants identified in practitioner roles were to be currently engaged in trauma care for over 5 years, to serve as the manager of emergency or trauma surgery department, and to have a bachelor's degree or higher. A total of 15 trauma experts from three grade A tertiary hospitals were invited to participate in this study by email or face to face in January 2022. The expert group comprised four trauma specialist doctors and 11 trauma specialist nurses. There were 11 women and 4 men. The age ranged from 32 to 50 (40.27±5.120) years. The number of years worked ranged from 6 to 32 (15.87±7.110).Two rounds of questionnaires were issued to 15 experts in each round, and the effective recovery rate was 100.00%. In this study, expert judgement=0.947, expert familiarity with the content=0.807 and authority coefficient=0.877, and the results are highly reliable. The Kendall's W of the two rounds in this study ranged from 0.208 to 0.467, and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). In the two rounds of expert consultations, four items were deleted, five items were modified, two items were added and one item was merged. Ultimately, the curriculum system of core competency training for emergency trauma nurses includes training objectives (8 theoretical knowledge and 9 practical skills), training contents (6 first-level indicators, 13 second-level indicators and 70 third-level indicators), training methods (9), evaluation indicators (4) and evaluation methodologies (4).This study proposed a core competency training curriculum system with systematic and standardised courses for emergency trauma nurses, which could be applied to assess trauma care performance, highlight areas for improvement for emergency trauma nurses and contribute to the accreditation of emergency trauma specialist nurses.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.