Redundant data entry question

[mathonix]

Please forgive my ignorance here, I am new to access and am just working on this database because no one else at my work thought they would be of any use.

I made a database for emergency room nurses to enter the tasks they are doing on any given shift, and the acuity (length of time) spent on each shift. The form basically looks like this:



Name / Date / Length of Shift
Activity (drop down list with about 30 options)
Acuity (text boxes named 1 through 4 to enter the total amount of the listed activities done at each acuity).

So a nurse might fill in their info and then have performed 2 Cash Screenings for Medicare Patients at acuity 3 and 1 at acuity 1.

The problem is they may do up to 10 different activities in one day and each time they are submitting their work they have to re-enter their name/date/length of shift. Any suggestions on how to add a button that will basically allow them to 'enter more' and maintain the name/date/shift info from their previous entries?

[ConneXionLost]

Hi mathonics,

Looks like a good time to move to two tables with a form/subform arrangement.

Build the tables like:

tblShift
ShiftID (Primary Key - Autonumber)
NurseName
ShiftDate
ShiftLength

tblActivity
ActivityID (Primary Key - Autonumber)
ShiftID (Foreign Key)
Activity
Acuity

Join the tables on ShiftID.

Build a form "frmShift" for tblShift.

Build a subform "fsubActivity" for tblActivity and insert it into frmShift. The subform wizard should be able to do most of this for you.

Now the nurses will only have to fill in the Shift info once, then list the activities for that shift in the subform.

Cheers,

[mathonix]

Thank you much! With a few small additions that worked perfectly.

[RuralGuy]

It sounds like you are ready to follow the link in my sig and mark this thread as Solved.