The SWOG Mentoring Advanced Practice Providers (MAPP) program.

e21005 Background: Oncology Advanced Practice Providers (APPs), which include Nurse Practitioners (NPs) and Physician Associates (PAs), are highly trained health care providers who are instrumental in delivering high-quality cancer care. The number of APPs has grown considerably in recent years. These clinicians provide much of the clinical care for cancer patients, with expertise in symptom management and care coordination; however, their role in clinical research has been limited. The SWOG Cancer Research Network has been engaging APPs since 2022 with the support of the Hope Foundation. In 2025, SWOG launched the Mentor APP (MAPP) Program, which aimed to examine a formalized mentorship intervention to integrate APPs into SWOG and increase involvement of APPs in clinical research practice. The primary objective of the program was to improve research self-efficacy (RSE) among participants and secondary objectives included increasing clinical research involvement and acceptability and feasibility of the intervention. Methods: Over a one-year period, 6 participants were mentored by 2 APP mentors and 2 program leads. Mentees were selected based on institutional involvement with SWOG, geographic location, and potential impact of their participation. Two PAs and 4 NPs were selected for participation. Five formal mentorship meetings occurred between mentors and mentees after an initial kick-off meeting conducted by the program leads. The meetings were a mixture of in-person at SWOG meetings and Zoom. Initial mentor-mentee meetings were 1:1, while the others were learning collaboratives at the SWOG Meetings. Mentees were able to request additional 1:1 meeting with their mentors if desired. The Mentees completed pre/post program questionnaires, which measured APP demographics (pre-only), APP RSE, & APP Clinical Research Involvement. Feasibility/acceptability and appropriateness were assessed through informal interviews and discussions with program participants. Results: Among the 6 APPs mentored, RSE improved in all 22 measured items (ranked 0-5), with mean scores ranging from 2.5-4.33 on pre-MAPP APP RSE and 3.8-5.0 on post-MAPP APP RSE scores. Greatest positive mean differences were how to enroll/refer a patient for a study (+2.3), investigator roles (+1.7, 1.9), understanding of regulatory process and inclusion of women and minorities (+2.03, 1.84), accessing APP resources (+1.5), grading CTCAE (+1.67), and confirming eligibility (+1.7). Meaningful improvements were noted for clinical research involvement and overall understanding of the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) and NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP). All mentees reported the intervention as feasible, acceptable, and appropriate. Conclusions: Formal APP mentorship through the NCTN/NCORP improves APP RSE, clinical research activity, and involvement within the research base and within APP practice.