"Looping" IV Tubing

The INS cleary prohibits this practice. As an IV nurse for 22 years I have seen it all and I can tell you that a lot of nurses are not cleansing these injection ports. we are having a difficult time getting them to cleanse our positive pressure caps as well. Some nurses look at us annoyed when we (iv NURSES) insist that they cleanse injection ports and caps prior to medications and initiating infusions. The point is DO NOT LOOP. It is lazy sloppy practice and you need to ask yourself how would you like someone to care for your IV site?

I'm probably going to sound really outdated here (which I am), but my question is why are IVs being disconnected so often? Granted I worked with neonates who are much easier to move around and clean up, and they don't get up to the bathroom, but why not just bring the IV pump and/or pole with the patient? It seems to me that the real infection control issue is repeatedly disconnecting and reconnecting the IV line.

At our hospital, we've been told that looping is an unacceptable practice and we could get written up for doing so. They've encouraged us to use a new sterile redcap on the end of the line any time we need to disconnect the patient (and have instructed us to try and disconnect as little as possible to avoid those bugs). Our nurse educator said that although theoretically, looping is still "sterile", anytime we connect/disconnect, it allows a new opportunity for bugs to come in, regardless of how well you clean the port. Not taking sides here, but just passing along what our facility does....