Articulating A Relational Database Design
Articulating A Relational Database Design
While an artist would rarely approach her audience and ask what they hope to see in her next creation, this is exactly what a database designer must do. To ensure that a database meets the needs of the organization and its users, designers communicate with users and other stakeholders to capture the vision of what is needed. This means that important stakeholders—nurses in particular—can make a significant impact on database design when they articulate to designers what is needed regarding the storage, search, and retrieval of healthcare data. Productive dialogue will help lead to the development of appropriate data types, relational tables, and other design elements. Such dialogue relies on the ability to effectively articulate database design. In this Discussion, you practice refining a database design by examining key design attributes and employing feedback from peers.
To prepare:
Review the Learning Resources.
Review your post from the Week 3 Discussion and the scenario on which it is based.
Identify any design issues that may be present in your database, including those related to one-to-many relationships or data types.
Consider ways in which you could connect the tables that you proposed in the Discussion in Week 3.
Review the article by Lo, et al. (2018) and consider the implications of connecting well-designed relational databases to improve outcomes through knowledge sharing.
Harrington, J. (2016). Relational database design and implementation (4th ed.). Cambridge, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.
Chapter 5, “The Relational Data Model” (pp. 89–106)
Lo, C. K.-M., Ho, F. K.-W., Chan, K. L., Wong, W. H.-S., Wong, R. S.-M., Chow, C.-B., … Ip, P. (2018). Linking healthcare and social service databases to study the epidemiology of child maltreatment and associated health problems: Hong Kong’s experience. The Journal of Pediatrics, 202, 291–299.e1.
Post an explanation of how you would adjust your design described in the previous discussion to address specific design issues such as one-to-many relationships and identification of data types. Be specific and provide examples. Explain how you would reduce the risk for poor data integrity and eliminate duplicate data. Support your plan with citations from the Learning Resources.