[killtimeatwork]

> I fell into programming for healthcare. I'm not good at it. I struggle to understand basic SQL joins, intermediate R, and intermediate statistics.

Maybe you're just overwhelmed and don't allocate enough time to learn each of those concepted? Joins in particular are a very simple concept that could be understood in a weekend of reading tutorials and playing with them. Honestly, the worst thing about them is probably the naming/syntax confusion across database engines.

BTW regarding studying medicine: here in Poland, in every city with a medical school, I see US students who are getting their M.D. here (they're easy to notice as they congregate in Starbuckses and study there). Many look like they're in their late twenties or in their thirties. Maybe it's a route for you as well?

[WhompingWindows]

Just about joins in particular. I get them now, but I struggled joining hospital tables together because they had around a dozen different ID keys that all meant something different - patient, provider, hospital, clinic, room, and these could vary geographically, so many of them were not "unique" and you needed to combine multiple ones. It's not so much the JOIN that was tough, but the universe of tables and keys we had to contend with at the hospital.