University College Cork has been awarded the winner of the All Ireland Interprofessional Health Challenge for students 2025!

31 Mar 2025

Celebrating Success in Interprofessional Learning at UCC!

The All Ireland Interprofessional Healthcare Challenge (AIPEC) is an intervarsity competition which provides an opportunity for students from all health and social care professions to work collaboratively to meet a challenge set around complex care issues. 

The UCC team were announced as winners at the final of the competition held on 28^th March in University College Dublin. The UCC team were selected at a local heat on the 12^th March.

The event saw eight University teams (UCD, TCD, RCSI, UL, UG, UCC, QUB, UU) present their collaborative management plan for a complex case of a patient with Heart Failure admitted to hospital. The patient had a number of health, social and psychological needs. At the event, the presentations were reviewed by a panel of judges with expertise in cardiology and heart failure. 

The team was made up of students from five programmes across the College of Medicine and Health, and the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences:

Speaking on the award, Dr Aoife Fleming, Vice Head for Interprofessional Learning, noted: "I am very proud of our UCC team who have won AIPEC 2025. They worked together as a team over a number of weeks, delivering a fantastic person-centred and collaborative management plan. It is particularly heartening and inspiring to see how each student's role and expertise benefited the team, and ultimately the quality of patient care presented. Congratulations to Ríona, Margaret, Caterine, Rachel and Niamh on representing UCC at this prestigious event."

Prof Helen Whelton, Head of the College of Medicine and Health said; "Healthcare is delivered by teams, not individuals - making interprofessional learning (IPL) a vital part of training. At UCC, we have been expanding our IPL initiatives under the excellent leadership of Dr. Aoife Fleming, Vice Head for IPL in the College of Medicine and Health.

We are delighted that a team of UCC students from across healthcare disciplines won the All-Ireland AIPEC Interprofessional Healthcare Challenge, hosted by UCD! With eight universities participating and an exceptionally high standard of presentations, our team delivered an outstanding case on the management of a patient with heart failure.

Huge congratulations to our winning team members, this achievement highlights the strength of collaborative learning and the impact of teamwork in healthcare education. Well done to all involved!"

AIPEC 2025 was hosted by UCD Health Affairs with an engaging programme including an expert panel and expert by experience discussion on heart failure. Further information on AIPEC 2025 is available here.