Personal Financial Well-being of Family Medicine Residents and Residency Curricula: A CERA Study

Personal financial wellness is a milestone in graduate medical education. Prior surveys addressing financial wellness have not included family medicine (FM) residents and to date, no literature has explored the relationship between perceived financial well-being and personal finance curriculum in residency. Our study aimed to measure the financial well-being of residents and its association with the delivery of financial curricula in residency and other demographics.

Our survey was included in the Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance (CERA) omnibus survey sent to 5,000 FM residents. We use the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) financial well-being guide and scale to measure financial well-being and categorize into low, medium, and high ranges.

Two hundred sixty-six residents (response rate of 5.32%) responded with a mean financial well-being score of 55.7 (SD 12.1), in the medium score range. Financial well-being was positively associated with any form of personal financial curricula in residency, year in residency, income and citizenship. Most residents 204 (79.1%) agreed/strongly agreed that personal financial curricula are important to their education, and 53 (20.7%) never received personal financial curricula.

Personal financial well-being scores of family medicine residents are considered medium per the CFPB ranges we assigned. We find a positive and significant association with the presence of personal financial curricula in residency. Future studies should evaluate the effectiveness of different formats of personal finance curriculum in residency on financial well-being.