Pre-matriculation programs are commonly used to help new medical students transition into medical school, especially when students come from varied educational background. Little is known about facilitators’ perspectives, even though they play a key role in designing and delivering these programs. This study aimed to explore facilitators’ views on the effectiveness, challenges, and future improvement of a basic biomedical science-matriculation program. A qualitative exploratory study was conducted using a focus group discussion involving ten facilitators from various department at a private medical faculty in Indonesia. Participants were purposively sampled to represent diverse disciplines and teaching experience. Data were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, translated into English, and analyzed using thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke’s framework. Four main themes were identified. First, facilitators had different views on the program’s effectiveness. Second, students showed weak understanding of key biomedical subjects, often relying on memorization rather than understanding concepts. Third, challenges in implementation included low student motivation, weak literacy and learning culture, generational and cultural gaps, curriculum overload, and limited pedagogical support. Fourth, facilitators proposed recommendations for improvement, emphasizing the need to incorporating learning skills, stronger integration of basic and clinical sciences, structured evaluation, faculty development, and institutional support. Facilitators generally valued the program but noted key challenges. Targeted redesign may improve effectiveness, emphasizing the need for learner-centered, integrated, and systematically evaluated approaches to support meaningful learning and transition to medical education.
Istadi et al. (Tue,) studied this question.