A Family Nurse Practitioner may instruct and counsel patients and their families, and involve them in informed decision making, with regards to their illness or injury, therapeutic and diagnostic procedures, treatment regimens, normal growth and development, family planning, advanced directives, emotional problems of daily living, and health maintenance. A Family Nurse Practitioner may gather a database on all new patients or established patients with new or existing problems which may include a complete medical history and physical examination, medical record review, and he/she may order the appropriate initial diagnostic studies and initiate a treatment plan.