To meet the demand for team-based care and address the growing shortage of health care workers, many oncology practices are hiring an increasing number of Advanced Practice Providers (APPs). Consequently, these practices have expressed a need for training materials for their new hires, and in response, ASCO University® has recently begun offering a new curriculum: ASCO's Curriculum for Advanced Practice Providers (ACAPP™).

ACAPP offers a range of options for Advanced Practice Providers with varying levels of experience. The Core Curriculum, targeted for APPs who are new to an oncology practice, is offered as a Basic or Premium package, which includes ASCO-SEP®, 3rd edition. Tumor-Focused Curricula are available for more experienced Advanced Practice Providers who want to increase their knowledge of a specific topic. Tumor-Focused Curricula include tracks on breast cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, genitourinary cancers, lung cancer, and hematologic malignancies. Details about the specific package choices can be seen in Table 1.

Kathleen Beekman, MD, a member of the Integrated Media and Technology Committee and the Workforce Advisory Group, led a planning team that developed the curriculum. "The ASCO University curriculum for Advanced Practice Providers stemmed from a recognition by multiple groups within ASCO that Advanced Practice Providers are an important and growing part of the oncology care team," said Dr. Beekman. "Many ASCO members have noted that training APPs in oncology is one barrier for practices in utilizing them in their practice. We felt that a coordinated effort by ASCO University to present educational material relevant for the practice and staff would be welcomed. We are very excited to have this now available and hope that practices take advantage of it."

The members of the full planning committee, Kathleen Beekman, MD; Dean Bajorin, MD; Daniel Hayes, MD; Barbara McAneny, MD; Todd Pickard, MMSc, PA-C; and Cindy Tofthagen, PhD, ARNP, brought a variety of backgrounds to the planning process and chose topic areas based on what is most often seen in practice.

"The workforce study shows that there will not be enough oncologists to see all the patients who need us, so we have been hiring APPs; however, we find ourselves doing on-the-job training, which has not been optimal, as we have not found training programs that meet the needs of APPs," said Dr. McAneny. "ASCO heard the need and has created a program which will be a great resource. We will use this program to bring our APPs the education they need to help them help our patients."

Oncology practices may purchase activation codes for their employees, or individual APPs may also purchase the curriculum. To help gauge comprehension, a post-assessment is included in both packages. In addition, all courses offer a Certificate of Completion from ASCO University to document participation.