Designing a financial wellness curriculum for paediatrics residents—an educational needs assessment

Objectives Resident physicians face important financial decisions; however, formal education in financial literacy within residency programs is lacking. Current literature reports that residents have poor financial knowledge, increasing levels of debt, and associated anxiety. There have been no published reports on financial well-being among paediatrics residents in Canada. Methods Using Kern’s six-step approach for curriculum development, a targeted educational needs assessment was performed. Surveys were distributed to assess residents’ financial knowledge, interest, behaviours, and to evaluate early career paediatricians’ perceived readiness for managing finances upon graduation. Descriptive statistics were performed in Microsoft Excel. Results Seventy-eight participants (35 residents and 43 early career paediatricians) were included. Seventeen (63.0%) respondents were very interested in participating in a financial curriculum, and 18 (66.7%) respondents strongly agreed that formal education in financial literacy in residency is important. Conclusions Participants expressed a strong desire for a financial curriculum, which represents an educational gap in residency.