A Multicenter Curricular Intervention to Address Resident Knowledge and Perceptions of Personal Finance.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Physician Well-being
• Financial Literacy

Background:

• Internal medicine residents often lack comprehensive personal finance knowledge.
• Financial stress and burnout are significant concerns in medical training programs.
• There is a need for accessible and effective financial education for residents.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of a personal finance educational intervention on internal medicine residents' knowledge and confidence.
• To evaluate the relationship between personal finance knowledge and resident burnout.
• To compare the effectiveness of different dissemination strategies for financial education.

Main Methods:

• A pre- and post-intervention survey was administered to internal medicine residents at two university programs.
• An educational curriculum covering budgeting, retirement savings, and investment options was implemented.
• Two dissemination methods were used: condensed lecture series and microlecture series.

Main Results:

• Post-intervention, residents demonstrated significant improvements in personal finance knowledge across basic concepts, mutual fund elements, and investment plans.
• Overall financial knowledge scores increased substantially after the intervention.
• A significant decrease in the proportion of residents reporting burnout was observed post-intervention.

Conclusions:

• Internal medicine residents express a desire for financial education.
• A brief educational intervention can effectively improve residents' personal finance knowledge.
• Enhanced financial knowledge may be linked to reduced feelings of burnout among residents.