I've worked nearly a year as a Informatics Pharmacist at my hospital. We just finished a go-live to Cerner Millenium and are starting to phase in CPOE. Before, we had McKesson STAR and Cerner Bridge. At the same time, we did a conversion from Omnicell 12 to Omnicell 15.5. We also have a repackager from TCG. I'm currently testing a TCG to Omnicell batch fill, while we convert to a Patient Specific "cartless" system in Omnicell.
There's a lot to do! I work 60+ hours a week, and I'm salaried for 40. Since you are in charge of the system, believe me; you will get calls day and night. Sometimes I have to come in at 1 AM to fix something, like I did last night. Sometimes its for an upgrade in software. You really do touch everyone. I work closely with IS for hardware installs, nursing and their needs, and of course my fellow pharmacists. When we prepared to go live, I stayed 36 hours in a row to catch up on the backload since I already had Cerner Millenium experience. Therefore, I was able to backload quickly. (Backload is when you take orders from the old system and enter them into the new system and MAINTAIN new orders, it's basically dual order entry).
Oh, and I graduated in 2010. You do need clinical experience. You must understand how order sets work. You must understand the whole medication workflow from the start of billing and CDM all the way down to the barcode the nurse scans. Your staff will look up to you to answer questions. And generally, when the director is out, your supervisor is out, you will be the one in charge. I've heard of some informaticists work 10 hours M-Thurs, but I think that's quite rare!
Anyways, I think the potential for growth is great. I met with Cerner pharmacists and Dell pharmacists that help with go live and support. They have a lot of responsibilities and travel 80% of the time, but I know they make GOOD money. (No, money's not everything, but it helps!) My mentor when I was an intern went from hospital to a company that develops IV pumps. Another mentor was at a retail pharmacy and did the UIC Informatics degree, her company gave her an extra 40k as soon as she graduated with that masters and now is way up in corporate.
You could even work for someone like Omnicell. My project manager from Omnicell mentioned they would be glad to reference me after I did the go-live for it. A pharmacist as a sales rep would be invaluable because they could truly provide deep insight on Omnicell's capability and how it affects workflow and improve efficiency.
And somehow, I still work PRN retail to keep me grounded to patients, not forgot patient care, and bring in extra $$$ lol. That 1-2 shift a month is more than enough