Health care professionals are encouraged through campaigns like Choosing Wisely to select tests and procedures on the basis of supporting evidence, necessity, and freedom from harm. Collecting and assessing patients’ data are core elements of nursing care. However, the imperative of collecting accurate data must be weighed against the risks that procedures may pose. For instance, pulmonary artery catheters can provide information about a patient’s hemodynamic status, but they do so at a price; their insertion can contribute to poor outcomes for patients because of the increased risk for infection, injury, and bleeding. A noninvasive procedure such as a passive leg raise can guide fluid resuscitation without those risks.

Schell-Chaple and colleagues compared rectal and bladder temperatures with forehead core temperatures measured by using a noninvasive monitoring system. Their evidence suggests that the noninvasive system is as reliable as, more comfortable than, and safer than either of the invasive measurements...

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