"Looping" IV Tubing

Looping IV tubing is simply bad practice. THe problem with it is most nurses dont swab the port before attaching the end of the tubing into the port. This contaminates the tubing. Now if your changing your tubing every 72 or 96 hours,, you have contaminated tubing sitting there being used over and over, becoming recontaminated after each use.

We had a BSI issue a year ago or so, and one of the few changes we implemented was the ban of looping IV tubing. We made readily available sterile syringe caps or the nurses could also take the cap off of the flush syringe and attach it to the end of the tubing. Once this practice was established, we went almost a year without a CRBSI.

My opinion and my opinion only....

Alcohol, when used properly will disinfect ports prior to use. It functions as a dessicant, essentially drying the bacteria to death. If you don't allow the alcohol time to do its job (ie dry) then you are wasting your time.