Alison Grisso

Her Story

After receiving her pharmacy degree with the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Grisso completed her PGY1 year at LeBonheur Children's Hospital also in Memphis. A native of Nashville, she returned home to complete her PGY2 in Pediatrics at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and has been employed there ever since. She is also Board Certified in Pediatric Pharmcotherapy. Her current role is the Clinical Pharmacy Specialist for general pediatrics and cystic fibrosis/pulmonary patients. Additionally, she is the current Residency Program Director for both the PGY1 and PGY2 in pediatrics program for Vanderbilt Children's and has served in this role for almost 10 years.

Overview of Facility/Health System

Monroe Carell, Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt is a 305 bed, free-standing children's hospital located on the Vanderbilt University Medical Center campus and part of the larger Vanderbilt Health-system. With 30 specialties, Children's is a teaching hospital not only for pharmacy residents and students but also students and residents in medicine, nursing, respiratory therapy and more. It boasts more than 47,000 emergency department visits per year with over 360,000 outpatient visits and over 16,000 inpatient discharges.

Significant Projects

As the RPD, I am fortunate to get to work on some projects with our residents. Currently, I am working with one of our residents on medication use in our behavioral medicine population. In the next few months, I will be working with one of my hospitalists on de-labeling penicillin allergy in pediatric patients. I have a few quality improvement projects on the list for my cystic fibrosis teams to work on in the near future.

Advice for Someone New to Your Specialty Area

It's key to realize you won't know everything right away so tackle small chunks of learning at a time. Take advantage of mentors and colleagues in pediatrics to help navigate more difficult situations as well as provide advice for what works for them in managing their practice. Get involved with pharmacy associations afor resources and information that can help you as you build your practice.

What is your current involvement with ASHP?

As an RPD, I have been involved with ASHP for many years! In the past three years, I have really enjoyed being a guest surveyor for PGY1 and pediatric PGY2 programs and look forward to continuing in this role. Additionally, I was excited to be a part of the original work group to start the pediatric SAG and have enjoyed continuing to work with this great group of pediatric practitioners.

Why did you become involved in ASHP?

Initially I became involved with ASHP because of our residency program. It has so many resources that are helpful to all involved with a residency program. However, I’ve been so excited to see how ASHP is evolving to add more pediatric content and grow the resources for pediatric practitioners. It’s exciting to be a part of this growing area for ASHP!

How would you explain the value of ASHP to a friend or colleague?

ASHP has some really valuable resources like its board certification credits that are an affordable way to keep up with your hours. Additionally, it provides excellent resources and exciting programming such as Midyear and National Preceptors Conference.

What is the value of ASHP for the profession?

ASHP works hard to keep pharmacy in the spotlight by working with our legislators to see the benefit of pharmacists practicing at the top of their license. Advocating for resources and help mitigating drug shortages have been two additional areas that have really come to the forefront, especially in light of the current pandemic.