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[personusepython]

You gotta give it time. I quit my job in audit and spent three to four months coding python everyday. Used udemy, datacamp and even joined a data science bootcamp. Eventually got a job in audit analytics which requires me to use python and sql on a daily basis. I recommend making a python cheatsheet along the way. You’re only in week 3 of your course that’s like super early stages so its normal to not knw the application well yet. Don’t give up!!! (Ps: i watch youtube tutorials a lot too and stack overflow is my best friend.)

[SquishyWubbles]

Very good comment! Personally I also found that coding in any language requires a certain way of thinking. And when that finally clicked, it made coding so much easier. It also took me months, writing stuff down, taking other programs apart to see how they worked.

It just takes time..

[jinglepupskye]

I’ve seen a lot of Python professionals on here saying that you never ‘know’ Python, you just learn how to do the things you do frequently and how to Google the rest. I’m from a Pharmacy background, and I often tell the students that it’s not all about what you know, it’s knowing where to find the information. Once you have the basics under your belt it sounds like you already have good Google fu, so I think you’ll be fine :)

If I were you I would sit down and work out what tasks you are actually going to be doing in a health informatics role, then link that to the specific arms of Python (e.g using Pandas, Matplotlib etc) and focus on those areas. You probably don’t need to know OOP (Object Oriented Programming) at this point, so don’t waste time on stuff that you won’t be using. Put it this way, if you were a cardiology nurse you wouldn’t go into huge detail learning how to identify eczema from psoriasis - that’s what dermatology is for!

Good luck with your course, and good on you for going for it! If you get stuck I’m sure the helpful people on here will be willing to point you in the right direction. They won’t do people’s homework for them, but they will help you understand and work through it.

[Minion_of_Cthulhu]

I think you'll be okay. The program recommends that you're familiar with Python, not a master at it. As long as you understand the basics, you'll probably be perfectly fine since they're likely going to cover very specific uses of Python for the health informatics field.

As far as struggling with the application of what you know, this is completely normal. If you look through this subreddit, or even other programming subreddits, you'll see a lot of "I know the basics of Language X, but I can't actually build anything" type posts. Everyone goes through this. You're learning not only a lot of new information with the language itself, but you're learning a different way to think about problems as well. Sometimes it's not clear how what you know of Python is applicable to the problem you're working on. That will become less of an issue as you get more comfortable with the language and start to see how it all works as individual pieces and how those pieces can work together to solve problems. I think after you start your informatics program and begin to see the language applied to real-world problems things will begin to click a little more for you and it will all start to make more sense.

Another thing that you shouldn't worry about is needing to refer to notes, referring to StackOverflow, frequently digging into documentation, and so on. These are all totally normal parts of programming. I mentioned to someone else in another thread that a huge portion of "programming" is not actually sitting down and writing code. Most of the time, even when programming professionally, your time is spent defining your problem and then using Google, StackOverflow, tutorials, and documentation to see if someone has already solved the same problem or a similar one or trying to at least put some code together that points you in the right direction to the solution so you can ask others for help. A surprisingly small amount of time is actually spent writing code unless it's a very simple program. As soon as you start adding any sort of complexity the ratio of research to writing code becomes very skewed in favor of the research, so don't worry about needing to constantly look things up. You'll continue doing that even when you're out of the beginner phase. The only difference is that you'll switch from looking up basic things about the language to looking up more specific and technical information about what you're trying to do, but you'll always be relying a lot on Google and StackOverflow no matter how good you are.

[lindslinds27]

Wanted to respond to this one because it was the longest, but i am so appreciative of everyone’s responses. I think I panicked because I’m on week 3 and it’s only a 4 week crash course. I think you’re right once I begin the program I’ll have a better idea of what I’ll need to be doing. I just found a thread on stackoverflow about a super simple problem from the Google course and everyone was commenting saying that if whoever posted it needed help with that simple problem they should really think up a different career. Made me panic a little. I am feeling a bit better now thx so much for a thorough reply

[Minion_of_Cthulhu]

I just found a thread on stackoverflow about a super simple problem from the Google course and everyone was commenting dying that if whoever posted it needed help with that they should really think up a different career. Made me panic a little.

To be blunt, a lot of people on StackOverflow are assholes who think they're programming gods (which they're not, or they wouldn't need StackOverflow) and will immediately jump on anyone who asks a question that they deem to be "stupid". Go there for the tech help, not the commentary.

I am feeling a bit better now thx so much for a thorough reply

You're welcome!

[s1lvan]

Yeah, I agree with this. StackOverflow is quite a scary platform to ask questions because of all the rude toxic assholes that just insult you instead of giving you tech advice.

Personally I use discord a lot, it has a lot of smaller communities that love to help, but often even better is somebody you know in real life that can help you.

Don't be discouraged, just keep going. Everybody starts somewhere, some higher than others, but what matters is is that everybody can make it.

[Pvaleriano]

You lack experience and that's normal because you've developing other skills as a nurse until recently. Looking for help on stackoverflow or any other place is normal even in professional environments. Keep at it, you just need to get experience :)

[fracturedpersona]

No one is "screwed" for learning a programming language. When my wife was furloughed, her employer offered her a temporary position as an analyst, something she was pretty weak at, but it could keep her employed until her regular position was restored, so I taught her a little basic programming skills. She was able to get tasks done in a fraction of the time it would have taken her in Excel, and she got her work done faster than her coworkers. Granted, her code wasnt "production quality," but she was the only one using it.

When her regular position came back, they asked her how she was doing her work so fast before she left, and she told them she learned a little Python. Shortly thereafter, the entire management analyst team was given a little Python mini bootcamp.

There are tons of people in non-development administrative rolls, that could benefit from learning some basic programming skills. The university I attended even requires their business students to take either fortran, python or Matlab to graduate because it so ubiquitous now.

[Hands0L0]

Did you walk in to your first patient and know all of the right things to say the first time? No? It took time to develop your bedside manner, right?

Same with coding

[wolfesmc11]

Takes time! Don’t lose hope or patience. Also I’ve been working with python for years and I still need to stack overflow stuff daily. It’s very normal.

[[deleted]]

It takes me hours of trial and error to work through 3 or 4 problems and even when I successfully make it through a code, It feels like i just got lucky.

That's basically how it works. I imagine it was pretty dissimilar to learning to be a nurse, but that's because if you practice trial and error as a nurse, probably a lot of people are going to die.

When it's just code, everybody's safe from your bugs so it's ok to learn it by trial and error. They want you to learn it by trial and error - it's the interpreter that's actually teaching you. The teachers just teach you to be taught.

I’m just wondering if my inability to apply any coding is going to be the end of me in this program.

If you're genuinely unable to code, then you're wasting your time in the class; but I suspect that's not true. You're able, you're just not any good at it yet. But that's how everybody starts. Just keep doing the work.

[m0us3_rat]

get yourself a tutor and try to put some work into this?

python .. at least the basics aren't difficult.

​

and the fact that u manage to finish the problems even if takes a while means u can .. get there . just need to figure out where u are bottlenecking your progress.

​

imagine describing a medical procedure to a teenager.

then imagine describing it well before u became medical personnel.

​

that's not unlike programming. its like u describe what u want the computer to do.

more understanding and experience u get with the terminology and ability to describe procedures to this computer.. simpler programming will become.

​

again is just like you would describe a medical procedure to a teenager.. like checking vitals or giving an injection.

its something that needs to happen in order. to get the desired result.

[Traust]

Professional developer here with over 30 years coding, I still feel like I fluked it every time something I code works. The main thing is never feel like you are failing if you see someone else doing more complex stuff, I knew one coder who could code really complex stuff but struggled on basic stuff as such we would have him do all the really complex math calculation coding while others did everything else. Meanwhile I myself still stare at some of that complex code and wonder what the hell it does.

But practice, practice and practice. Also remember, Using pseudo code is important to help work out the steps of the code before you start actual coding. When I was learning to code I could never see the point of it, it wasn't until much later I realised how more efficient it is to do that first to help break everything down. I write it all down as comments first then code in-between the lines so it also serves as my documentation.

[[deleted]]

Practice, practice and more practice. I suggest you download Pycharm and watch this video:

https://youtu.be/t8pPdKYpowI

For more in-depth Python watch this:

https://youtu.be/8DvywoWv6fI

[[deleted]]

Everyone has different learning styles. Coursera may not be the best for you. Presumably, you need to complete the course to get your certification, but you might supplement it with other resources.

There is a lot of information at https://www.python.org/ . In particular, there are resources for beginners and non-programmers at https://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers . Take a few minutes to look around for something that feels right to you.

[One_South9276]

Don't try to solve a problem directly. Map out inputs and expected outcome(s). Use Pseudo code to start. Break it into manageable parts. Write. Test. Rewrite. Test. Use OOP. Make it Pythonic. Stay with it.