Saturday 7th March saw the 2026 National SimWars Competition take place, hosted by Trinity College Dublin, the Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, and the TCD Emergency Medicine Society in the state-of-the-art nursing Simulation Suite in Dublin. The all-Ireland contest featured participants from all seven universities on the island with a record 126 medical and nursing students taking part.
After a series of highly competitive rounds, ‘Update from the K Hole’ representing University College Dublin (UCD) were crowned 2026 SimWars Champions, narrowly defeating University College Cork’s ‘Ketamindset’ and fellow UCD team ‘Hocus Pocus’ in one of the most closely contested finals in the competition’s history.
This year marked the 10th annual SimWars competition, a milestone for the event since its creation in 2017 by Dr Tiarnán Byrne and Dr Jamie Condren, both of whom were medical students at UCD at the time. Since its inception, SimWars has grown steadily in popularity and is now widely regarded as a highlight of the academic calendar for students interested in Emergency Medicine.
Professor Dara Byrne, National Lead for Simulation for the HSE, addressed the students and noted, ‘delighted to be part of SimWars as it celebrates its 10th anniversary as students compete in team-based simulation and patient safety skills. This event highlights the important role of simulation in supporting the transformation of modern healthcare delivery which is dependent on teams. The design and delivery of this event takes a village of committed multi-professional clinical, academic and support staff who understand the value of this in healthcare.’
Sustainability was the theme of the event, and there was an emphasis on making it ‘Green.’ Use of public transport was encouraged; reusable water bottles were used and –
in a competition first – electronic judging was introduced to markedly reduce the use of paper scoring. Irish Doctors for the Environment supported the initiative and spoke to the students about their role in sustainability as future healthcare providers.
IAEM congratulated Dr Victoria Meighan, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Tallaght University Hospital, and SimWars Ireland for the delivery of an exceptional competition and educational event.
SimWars is an intervarsity simulation resuscitation competition involving medical and nursing students from universities across the island of Ireland. The competition evaluates the clinical assessment and management of simulated patients who require resuscitation as well as the teams’ communication, teamwork and leadership skills. The Association has committed to continue to support this innovative and exciting competition on an ongoing basis and looks forward to the 2026 Trainee & Nursing competition that will take place this October at the Association’s Annual Scientific Meeting in Limerick.
Download: IAEM Celebrates 10th SimWars Competition
