Personal Financial Wellness Curricula for Medical Trainees: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Purpose Education debt, poor financial literacy, and a late start to retirement savings can cause financial stress among physicians. This systematic review identifies methods for curriculum development, methods for curriculum delivery, and outcome measures to evaluate the effectiveness of personal financial wellness curricula for medical students, residents, and fellows. Method The authors searched the Embase, MEDLINE (via EBSCO), Scopus, Education Resources Information Center (via EBSCO), and Cochrane Library databases and MedEdPORTAL (via PubMed) on July 28, 2022. Studies must have reported the outcome of at least 1 postcourse assessment to be included. Results Of the 1,996 unique citations identified, 13 studies met the inclusion criteria. Three curricula (23.1%) were designed for medical students, 8 (61.5%) for residents, 1 (7.7%) for internal medicine fellows, and 1 (7.7%) for obstetrics–gynecology residents and fellows. The most frequently discussed personal finance topics included student loans, investment options, disability insurance, life insurance, retirement savings, budgeting, debt management, and general personal finance. A median (interquartile range) of 3.5 (1.4–7.0) hours was spent on personal finance topics. Eleven curricula (85.6%) relied on physicians to deliver the content. Four studies (30.8%) reported precourse and postcourse financial literacy evaluations, each showing improved financial literacy after the course. Four studies (30.8%) assessed actual or planned financial behavior changes, each credited with encouraging or assisting with financial behavioral changes. One study (7.7%) assessed participants’ well-being using the Expanded Well-Being Index, which showed an improvement after the course. Conclusions Given the impact educational debt and other financial stressors can have on the wellness of medical trainees, institutions should consider investments in teaching financial literacy. Future studies should report more concrete outcome measures, including financial behavior change and validated measures of wellness.