BACKGROUND: Credentialing is a process of evaluating nurses and midwives to obtain clinical authority carried out by the nursing committee at the hospital. The credential process has prerequisites in the form of documents that must be completed, namely, curriculum vitae, diploma, training certificate, registration certificate, practice permit, and logbook as a sign of the mentoring process from each level of nurses and midwives, who also serves as evidence that the Ongoing Professional Performance Evaluation process has taken place as well as the requirements to apply for a career advancement. Re-credentialing is a re-evaluation process for nursing staff and midwives who already have clinical authority to determine the feasibility of granting clinical authority.
AIM: This study aims to determine the perceptions of nurses and midwives about the credentialing process at the Universitas Sumatera Utara Hospital.
METHODS: This study used a qualitative descriptive survey method. The number of samples as many as 12 people selected by incidental sampling. Data collection was carried out by conducting in-depth interviews with respondents during July 2021 in the nursing committee room. The research process consists of several stages starting from the stage of data collection, data presentation, and drawing conclusions.
RESULTS: The results of the study focused on the perceptions of nurses and midwives at the Universitas Sumatera Utara Hospital which refers to their knowledge and understanding of the credential process at the Universitas Sumatera Utara Hospital. This study found three themes related to the perception of nurses and midwives and midwives in implementing credentials at the Universitas Sumatera Utara Hospital, namely, the difficulty in making daily logbooks, several credential requirements, documents, or credentials that were asked to be collected repeatedly, and difficulties in managing them, processing time, and assessment in credentials.
CONCLUSION: The nursing committee is important to create efficient and up-to-date nurses and midwives document storage system, a more practical and capable nurses and midwives logbook creation mechanism, and a more effective and time efficient credentialing process mechanism.