15 Embedding a Culture of ESD in a New Pharmacy Programme

Dr Joanne O’Dwyer outlines how ESD is being embedded from the ground up in the University of Galway’s new Pharmacy programme, due to welcome its first intake in 2025. Unlike established courses where sustainability must be retrofitted, this programme provides a rare opportunity to bring sustainability into the curriculum from the outset.

Initially, sustainability was considered mainly in terms of SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing. However, through engagement with professional development in curriculum design, Dr O’Dwyer broadened this perspective to highlight the relevance of many SDGs, from gender equality in clinical trials to responsible consumption and disposal of medicines. She stresses the pharmacist’s role not only as a healthcare provider, but also as a community leader able to influence sustainable practices.

To support this integration, sustainability prompts have been added to module lead guidance documents and year-level review checklists, ensuring consistency across the programme. These encourage staff to map content to the SDGs, embed ESD competencies, address eco-anxiety, and consider issues such as decolonisation of healthcare knowledge. Dr O’Dwyer piloted these ideas by redesigning a professional skills module, updating outcomes and assessments to reflect global healthcare perspectives and sustainable pharmacy practice.

She concludes that while much of the content and competencies were already implicit in pharmacy education, making them explicit through an ESD lens transforms how students see their future roles. By linking local professional practice with global sustainability challenges, the programme aims to graduate pharmacists who are both skilled clinicians and sustainability advocates.

About the author

name: Dr Joanne O’Dwyer

institution: University of Galway

Dr Joanne O’Dwyer is a member of the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences in Pharmacy at the University of Galway.