Hospital staff known as the Poo Nurses have won an award for their work tackling the issue of childhood constipation.

Sandra Hanson, of Gouge Avenue, Northfleet, and Helen Ripper, of Joydens Wood, run the Childhood Constipation Service at Darent Valley Hospital, and have won a Nursing Times National Award for their advice video.

The pair wrote the script and designed the video about the use of macrogol laxatives to help GPs, parents and carers manage and tackle chronic constipation in children.

Nurse Ms Hanson said: “This award is the equivalent of winning an Oscar.

“This will have an enormous impact on helping thousands of children and their parents treat this easily but often mismanaged problem.

“The problem with children, once they do one poo that might hurt them a bit, they won’t poo.

“You can’t tell a two or three- year-old you must do that poo but they keep it all inside then they get other health issues. We didn’t just want to help children in our locality but had aspirations to spread this knowledge across the country.

“It was this desire which led to the idea of a video.

“We are so pleased to say we have achieved this.

“Our objective is to make sure that children with constipation are managed in the community, with support from their GP and do not have to attend acute hospitals. Unmanaged childhood constipation problems can become chronic with soiling, which causes long-term physical and psychological problems which impacts on everyday life. This is what we want to avoid.”

Ms Ripper, who is a support officer at the hospital, said: “The satisfaction we get from knowing we are helping so many children and their families gives us immense pride.

“Winning this award is a culmination of all our hard work and finally we can realise our ambition to get this information out nationwide.

“Since making this video, we have also found that children are also watching it themselves, enjoying the animation and giving them greater understanding and even adults who take macrogols are finding it useful”.

The pair collected the award for the Continence, Promotion and Care category at Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London.

To view the video visit thepoonurses.uk.