The Swiss Emergency Championship is more than just a competition: it is a learning experience that brings together professionals from the emergency and critical care fields. Originally developed as an evolution of the Swiss Prehospital Championship, today it brings together hospital and prehospital teams in a unique training program that integrates simulations, complex scenarios, and interprofessional collaboration based on the principle of edutainment.
In recent years, Sim Wars have established themselves as an innovative form of experiential training in the healthcare field: events that, behind the appearance of a competition, conceal a powerful learning tool.
Through simulations, immersive experiences, and challenges between teams, these competitions offer a dynamic context in which professionals can compare themselves, reflect, and grow together.
This vision gave rise to the Swiss Emergency Championship (SEC): a project that transforms challenge into learning and experience into shared growth.
In these pages, we tell its story through the voices of those who have experienced it firsthand.
From the Beta Edition to today
The idea for the SEC was born before the pandemic, as an event dedicated to pre-hospital medicine.
The health crisis slowed down its implementation, but made the value of spaces for discussion and collaboration between professionals even more evident.
In 2023, the Beta Edition took shape, a sort of dress rehearsal for the format.
Seven pre-hospital teams from the Canton of Ticino took part in a day of competition and learning, tackling two clinical simulations and a competitive workshop.
The three best teams then went through to the afternoon finals, where they faced a high-intensity multi-patient scenario.
After the Beta Edition in 2023, the first official edition took place this year, marking an important transition: from the Swiss Prehospital Championship to the Swiss Emergency Championship.
The new name better reflects the vision: not just pre-hospital, but the entire emergency response, also integrating hospital teams working in the emergency room.
As founders of the SEC, we saw confirmation of the idea that started it all: teams prepare for weeks with simulations and training, achieving most of their training goals even before the competition.
The competition then becomes an opportunity to put what they have trained into practice, in a stimulating context that is also open to the public.
It is not just about winning, but above all about competing, growing, and reflecting together.
The first phase saw the Ticino teams engaged in simulation scenarios and workshops dedicated to the development of technical and non-technical skills, alternating between exercises on complex cases and moments of open discussion.
In the final phase, hosted as part of the Critical Care Symposium of Italian-speaking Switzerland (SACSI), pre-hospital and hospital teams from the Canton of Valais also joined in.
Overall, the 2025 edition involved around sixty participants divided into competing teams, ten jury members, and around 20 other professionals, including organizers and volunteers.
During the preliminary stages, the Ticino champions were decided, while the finals crowned the Swiss champions.
The format featured a variety of clinical scenarios in emergency medicine, trauma, and pediatrics, culminating in a final scenario of a mass casualty event.
In the latter, the dynamic involved a 1:1 integrated simulation, in which the pre-hospital team handed over the patient to the hospital team, staging the entire emergency rescue chain.
Building a common culture of emergency
For Carlo Realini, Director of the Mendrisiotto Ambulance Service and member of the Strategic Committee, the SEC represents “a concrete step towards a common culture of emergency and urgent care in Switzerland.
It brings together professionals from different languages and regions, creating a network that values differences and promotes shared standards.”
The Championship helps to consolidate the link between the local area and the hospital, promoting the creation of a common language and more effective interprofessional collaboration.
“The conditions are there,” concludes Realini, “the SEC has already proven its ability to generate enthusiasm and a sense of belonging.”
A bridge between school and profession
Among the protagonists of the first official edition of the SEC is the Centro Professionale Sociosanitario Infermieristico (CPS-I) in Manno, which not only hosted the preliminary stages but also participated with its own team of students.
As explained by Director Paolo Barro, a member of the Strategic Committee, the decision to involve a team of trainee paramedics stemmed from a desire to “strengthen the professional identity of future paramedics and offer them an opportunity to test themselves in a realistic and interprofessional context.”
The SEC thus represents a concrete bridge between training and the world of work, where students can interact with active professionals, measure themselves against complex scenarios, and recognize the value of collaboration between disciplines.
A network that creates educational value
The collaboration with the Simulation Center (CeSi) of the Professional Medical-Technical Social Health Center in Lugano was of fundamental strategic value for the creation of the SEC, as it allowed for the consolidation of a network of interprofessional collaboration between educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and simulation specialists.
As Pier Luigi Ingrassia, Scientific Director of CeSi and member of the Strategic Committee, points out, the SEC “was born from the meeting of institutions with different but complementary vocations: first responders, hospitals, professional schools, and clinical simulation specialists. Together,” he explains, “we have built a format that combines education and entertainment, creating real educational value. Bringing this experience to SACSI has amplified its significance and cultural impact.”
An event that finds its home in the Critical Care Symposium
The first official edition took place within the Critical Care Symposium of Italian-speaking Switzerland, directed by Prof. Paolo Merlani, Medical Director and Head of the Critical Care Department of the Regional and Cantonal Hospital of Lugano.
Merlani explains that the Symposium is “a platform that brings together doctors and nurses from all areas of emergency care, from pre-hospital to intensive care.” The aim is not only to provide updates, but also to promote collaborative training that combines professional growth with a human dimension. “The SEC fits perfectly into this vision,” says Merlani, “because it brings enthusiasm, team spirit, and involvement, managing to unite the public and professionals.”
The protagonists have their say
For Hernâni, a member of the winning team, the SEC was not just a competition but a real journey.
“The preparation began weeks before,” he says, “with simulations of different scenarios and attention to non-technical skills. Working under the gaze of the jury and the public created positive pressure, which was transformed into concentration and a desire to do our best. More than the result,“ continues Hernâni, ”what remains is the team experience, the comparison with others, and the awareness of having really learned something.”
Nicolò, who came from Genoa to watch the preliminary stages, also says he was impressed by the atmosphere of the event: “It’s not just a competition, but an immersion in the world of emergencies. You can feel the preparation, collaboration, and stress management.”
Looking ahead
The Swiss Emergency Championship has taken its first steps, but it has already set a clear direction: to focus on collaboration and continuous learning.
It is not just a competition, but a place where training becomes experience and passion translates into professional culture.
Relive the atmosphere of the competition in the official aftermovie of the Swiss Emergency Championship 2025.
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