• David W Walsh, William M Sullivan, Meghan Thomas, Ashley Duckett, Brad Keith, and Andrew D Schreiner.
• From the Department of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Augusta, the Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, and the Department of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston.
• South. Med. J. 2021 Jul 1; 114 (7): 404-408.

ObjectivesWe evaluated internal medicine residents' confidence and knowledge of personal finance, perceptions of burnout, and relations between these issues before and after an educational intervention.MethodsWe surveyed internal medicine residents at two university-based training programs in 2018. We developed and implemented a curriculum at both sites, covering topics of budgeting, saving for retirement, investment options, and the costs of investing. Each site used the same content but different strategies for dissemination. One used a condensed-form lecture series (two 1-hour sessions) and the other used a microlecture series (four 30-minute sessions) series. Residents were resurveyed following the intervention for comparison.ResultsThe preintervention survey response rate was 41.2% (122/296) and the postintervention response rate was 44.3% (120/271). Postintervention mean scores for personal finance knowledge improved for basic concepts (52.6% vs 39.4%, P < 0.001), mutual fund elements (30.8% vs 19.7%, P < 0.001), investment plans (68.5% vs. 49.2%, P < 0.001), and overall knowledge (50.1% vs 36.1%, P < 0.001). A significantly smaller proportion of residents reported feelings of burnout following the intervention (23.3% vs 36.9%, P = 0.022).ConclusionsOur findings show that residents want to learn about finances. Our brief educational intervention is a practical way to improve overall knowledge. Our intervention suggests that improving knowledge of finance may be associated with decreased feelings of burnout.

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