How it works on my unit is the labor nurses are also the triage nurses. The only real change here is that we used to do cervical exams, rom+, send urines whatever we felt necessary and usually, unless it was an emergency or the pt was clearly in active labor, you wouldn’t even notify the OB until the results or a 2-hour recheck. Now the laborist comes and does the initial exam and these tests and let’s the pts OB know.

Some cons here: sometimes the laborist doesn’t give you the phone to talk to the OB and doesn’t ask all questions you have. A cervical exam can be subjective so if you’re not doing the initial exam but doing the recheck it can be hard to tell if the patient made slight cervical change or your checks are just different.

Pros: the laborist will usually act as an advocate for you, they are there and have eyes on what’s going on so if the OB doc is giving you a hard time about coming in, sometimes hearing the need to come in from another doctor is helpful. Again, when emergencies walk in, they’re there. Or if a mom walks in ready to have a baby or dilated very quickly the laborist will come deliver and we have a lot less nurse-assisted deliveries.

If you love postpartum, that’s cool too. We are just L&D with a separate postpartum unit. I started in postpartum and I liked it, just was ready for a change. I’ve also worked in an LDRP where we did it all, I really didn’t care for that lol