We’ve worked with the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) to develop new education modules for community pharmacy teams about BowelScreen, Ireland’s free national bowel screening programme.
The education modules have been developed as part of the implementation of the Community Pharmacy Agreement 2025. The agreement aims to support increased uptake of BowelScreen and acknowledges the important role that community pharmacies can play in enhancing access to public health services and health promotion.
The education modules support community pharmacy teams to provide accurate information and encourage people eligible for BowelScreen to take part. The current age range is 57 to 71.
About the education modules
We’ve developed 3 education modules that are hosted on the IPU’s website for IPU members.
- Module 1: Bowel Cancer
- Module 2: About BowelScreen
- Module 3: Supporting people to take part in BowelScreen
They are available to view in 3 separate modules, or in a single module format. Together, the modules take about 25 minutes to complete.
Further educational resources
We’re also providing community pharmacies with additional resources to support this work including:
- a Q+A document about BowelScreen
- resources in accessible and easy to read formats
- videos about BowelScreen available in 29 languages and in Irish Sign language
- a video explaining how to use the BowelScreen online register
- information leaflets (available in English and Irish)
- a guide to screening for carers and the people they support
- information leaflets available to order at healthpromotion.ie
- IPU Review articles.
Next steps
- Pharmacies that opt into the BowelScreen services under the Community Pharmacy Agreement 2025 will complete the BowelScreen education modules by the end of September 2026.
- We will continue working with the IPU to implement the Community Pharmacy Agreement 2025. We are developing a pharmacy promotional campaign. This involves the development of promotional materials on prescription bags to encourage people to talk to their community pharmacy teams about BowelScreen.
- We will support this in-pharmacy campaign by developing an extensive public communications campaign to promote the supportive role community pharmacies can play for people who want to get support or information about BowelScreen.