AIPEC Event March 24th 2023

On 24th March, we had a team of UL Health Sciences students representing UL at the All-Ireland Interprofessional Education Challenge (AIPEC) hosted by University of Galway. UL was the home of this competition, previously called the ‘Health Fusion Team Challenge, and in 2021, the Health Sciences Academy hosted the event, growing it to a national event with all 8 Universities involved, north and south of the border. The UL team comprised 5 students: Roisin Cahill (Physiotherapy), Elizabeth Cooper (Occupational Therapy), Ellen McCarthy (Dietetics), Michaela Monks (Psychology) and David Flynn (Medicine) and, whilst they were not crowned All-Ireland winners, they were exceptionally strong and their hard work in preparing for the event was clear to see. UCD were the competition winners, and the plan for 2024 is that the event will be hosted by Queens University, Belfast. Of note, UL was the only University in Ireland to hold internal heats to decide the winning team to progress to the national final. This is a testament to the growing interest in IPE and the value the students place on this.