Mind, Money and Medicine: Financial Literacy and Emotional Intelligence as Professional Competencies in Healthcare Education

Date: Friday, 25 September 2026 | Time: 1445 - 1615 | Venue: L2-S3 Exp, Academia (SGH Campus)

Track Type: Workshop

Main Facilitator:

Overview:

This practical, interactive workshop introduces financial literacy and emotional intelligence as essential non-clinical competencies for healthcare professionals. While resilience and wellbeing are now frequently addressed in healthcare education, financial uncertainty remains an under-recognized source of stress that can shape professional identity, influence decision-making, and affect satisfaction at work.

Participants will examine common but often unspoken conditioning around money in medicine, including cultural discomfort with financial discussions and assumptions about professionalism, sacrifice, and earning. By making these implicit narratives visible, the workshop helps participants understand how financial uncertainty can interact with emotional stress and shape behavior and choices over time. Adapted from a longitudinal, non-commercial teaching program delivered to postgraduate medical trainees, the workshop emphasizes conceptual understanding rather than the provision of financial advice. Participants will engage with core financial literacy concepts relevant to healthcare professionals, including loans, taxation, insurance, inflation, and risk–return trade-offs, using publicly available data and realistic healthcare career scenarios.

The workshop also explores emotional intelligence at both personal and professional levels, focusing on how cognitive and emotional processes operate under stress. Concepts such as emotional regulation, stress reactivity, and phenomena commonly described as “amygdala hijack” help participants recognize their own stress responses and understand how these responses influence communication and judgement in clinical and educational settings.

Through guided worksheets, facilitated discussion, role play, and reflective activities, participants explore how financial stress influences decision-making, communication, and professional authenticity.

Learning Outcome(s):

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Describe key financial literacy concepts relevant to healthcare professionals.
• Explain the importance of Emotional Resilience in professional practice, unravel amygdala-hijack and identify strategies for personal stress regulation.
• Recognise the relationship between financial uncertainty, emotional stress, and professional wellbeing in healthcare settings.

Target Audience:

Healthcare educators and clinical faculty involved in undergraduate, postgraduate, or continuing professional development. No prior financial expertise is required.