TOTB-08: LIFE BEYOND THE SCRUBS: A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY FLIPPED CLASSROOM APPROACH TO TEACH FINANCIAL LITERACY IN A SURGICAL RESIDENCY PROGRAM
Carl Gustaf Stefan Axelsson, MD MPhil MMSc; Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
What problem in education is addressed by this work?:
A great deal of attention is placed on clinical competence, professional development, and career progression during residency training. This focus can result in some personal matters remaining on the sideline, such as sizable medical school debt, finding a home, and ensuring a sustainable household budget. Our literature review and needs assessment showed that residents feel inexperienced in the basics of managing the financial aspects of personal life and lack basic financial literacy. Video-based education modules with a flipped classroom component are an ideal method to address these topics in an engaging and useful educational manner.
Describe the intervention:
Together with the Harvard University Employees Credit Union (HUECU), the Surgical Education Research Group (SERG) at Massachusetts General Hospital developed a video-based education module with a flipped classroom component on âhome buying and rentingâ aimed at the Residents at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Residents were provided with a short video on each topic, covering basic information on the advantages and disadvantages of renting versus buying, followed by a walkthrough of the process of home buying and navigating the mortgage landscape. Following completion of the modules, the residents could schedule consultations with financial experts and Mortgage Loan Originators at the HUECU to apply content knowledge to their own practical scenario. By providing this flipped classroom module and others on adjacent financial topics, our aim is to increase financial literacy amongst surgical residents and eliminate the adverse effects of feeling inexperienced in dealing with personal finances.
Describe how this intervention could be applied at other institutions. Please specifically comment on identified barriers that could exist and how they could be overcome:
We plan to make these modules freely available to other residency programs with the hope to continue to fine-tune the content and delivery. We believe that we have overcome many of the potential barriers for residency programs to each individually create these types of modules including lack of time, institutional buy-in, or willing financial content expert partners.