A National CERA Study of Use of Laborists in Family Medicine Residency Training

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Little is known about the impact of laborists (which we defined as "clinicians dedicated to providing L& D care services in the hospital environment for pregnant patients, regardless of who provided the prenatal care" for this survey) on family medicine residency training. We surveyed family medicine residency directors to assess characteristics about laborist services and their involvement in family medicine residency teaching. METHODS: Questions were included in the 2015 Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance (CERA) survey of family medicine residency directors. Univariate statistics were used to describe programs, directors, and our questions on the use of laborists. Chi-square tests and Student's t tests were used to evaluate bivariate relationships using a P<.05 to denote statistical significance. RESULTS: A total of 250/473 (52.9%) of residency directors completed the laborist section of the CERA survey. Sixty-four percent of residency programs were community based/university affiliated, representing the expected range, size, and location of family medicine programs. Almost half of programs (44.4%) reported a laborist service in their main teaching hospital for L& D training. Of directors, 64.1 % viewed laborists as good/excellent educators; 54.3% reported little or no reduction in L&D teaching required of their faculty despite the presence of a laborist service. Fifteen percent reported that >30% of their graduates included L&D care in their first practice. CONCLUSIONS: Laborists have an important role in family medicine resident obstetrics training and education. More research is needed to explore how laborists and family medicine faculty can collaborate to promote enhanced efficiency and effectiveness as residency teachers.