I've been in IT for a good amount of time with experience in network design, programming, DBA, server administration, PC repair, sales, pre-sales support, etc. before I started in Pharmacy Informatics. Just about NONE of the direct skills (installing operating systems, replacing broken hardware, removing viruses, building databases, etc.) translated over to Pharmacy Informatics.
However, the algorithmic/logical thinking, workflow tracing, problem solving, project management, and other essential diagnostic skills I developed are essential to my day-to-day operations of our Epic Willow application.
When we started on this last year I had the exact same amount of Epic experience that the 3 pharmacists and 1 RN on my team...none. We all started on equal footing, but it was our ability to shape our backgrounds and talents into the world of Epic that made our Willow go-live successful. We all got the same training and went through the same certification process. That's where you learn how to start using the vendor's software.
Like rxblitzrx said, we spend time thinking from the big picture perspective. We look at how the organization functions from the pharmacy's perspective and then we configure the various applications to do the work we need. I definitely mean the whole organization too...and not just the pharmacy. The Willow Inpatient application has its hands in many, many parts of the hospital and even our ambulatory clinics.
A lot of times that means picking up the phone, calling the vendor, and saying "we do X, but your software does Y by default. How do I change it?"" Sometimes you get the answer you need, and other times you find out that you need to change how your organization functions to fit the capabilities of the software.
I'm still hoping to go to Pharmacy school. I just don't know if I'll be able to make it work financiall, but IT CPhT doesn't get paid nearly as well as IT RPh!
But I still can build meds, order sets, alternatives, etc. I take the requests from the clinicians, translate them into what Epic needs, and then have them reviewed by the pharmacy.
So, the short version : three (two are pharmacists) out of the fve people on my Willow team had no IT experience, and are excellent Pharmacy Informatics analysts by applying their current skillset to a rapidly developing and very exciting field!