Congenital Heart Disease means that a baby is born with an abnormality in the heart and affects almost 1 in 100 babies born in the UK – over 5,000 babies per year. It is the biggest cause of perinatal and infant mortality from congenital anomalies. Defects vary in complexity and require intensive surgeries and innovative specialist care from cardiac teams, including specialist cardiac nurses. While some defects can be corrected and managed at birth, many require a lifetime of care and treatment.
Having both spent a lot of their lives with cardiac teams, Kerry and Joel are both connected to cardiac care in Birmingham for different reasons. Kerry Gaskin is the first Professor of Congenital Cardiac Nursing in the UK, researching to improve cardiac nursing in the UK at Birmingham City University. Joel Foster Finn is a filmmaker and first-class postgraduate BCU alumnus from Birmingham School of Art, who was born with congenital heart defects.
Watch Kerry and Joel discuss the importance of research in cardiac nursing, and the impact it has on individuals and families living with CHD.
Professor Kerry Gaskin is researching to generate and exchange knowledge here at Birmingham City University. Moving to BCU provided a unique opportunity for Kerry to work closely with colleagues at in the world-renowned Specialist Cardiac Services at Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital and University Hospital Birmingham to improve the lives of children, young people, and adults with congenital heart disease and their families in the region.
Kerry was born in Birmingham and started her nursing career in Birmingham as a student nurse at Dudley Road Hospital in 1989. Other than moving away to university in 1992 to study Paediatric Nursing, and then working for a few years in London at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, she has lived and worked in the Midlands for most of her life.
As a registered children’s and adults nurse, Kerry has worked in children’s intensive cardiac care, paediatric intensive care, and high dependency at several specialist children's cardiac units and children's hospitals (Oxford, Great Ormond Street London, and Birmingham Children’s Hospital) before moving into academia at in 2005. She has worked in a variety of academic roles over the last 19 years and joined Birmingham City University this year as the first Professor of Congenital Cardiac Nursing in the UK.
Her position has been a visionary role for the Royal College of Nursing's vision for Children and Young People's Cardiac Nursing since 2014, with the guidance updated in 2021.
Kerry is currently working on research activities and outputs to leverage technology for the assessment and monitoring of fragile infants with congenital heart disease in the community. She is passionate about making a true difference in the world of cardiac care. With parents and colleagues, Kerry developed a parental early warning tool called the Congenital Heart Assessment Tool (CHAT), empowering parents to escalate worries and concerns by identifying signs of deterioration in their infant and making prompt contact with the appropriate health care professionals.
A few key areas Kerry is currently researching are:
- Dental preparation of children with cardiac diseases
- Understanding parents’ experiences of being at home with their new-born baby during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Parent and legal guardian telephone calls to a children’s cardiac unit
- Specialist cardiac surgical centre staff experiences taking telephone calls from parents of children with congenital heart disease.
- Health inequalities for CHD patients.
She is also director of studies for two PhD students at BCU.
Joel Foster Finn was born in 1999 in Birmingham Women’s Hospital and diagnosed when he was born with a congenital heart defect, Transposition of the Great Arteries. This life-threatening defect occurs when the two main blood vessels leaving the heart are in abnormal positions and requires surgeries and consistent cardiac care throughout life.
Joel explains:
“Cardiac nurses are a first point of contact for me, and it’s about reassuring you. Obviously, they are looking after you on a technical level, but also more psychologically and emotionally too.
They reassure you and explain things to you in a way that you can understand, and make you feel comfortable in a scary situation, where you have a lot of doubts and thoughts and questions. Nurses are so patient and always make you feel like you’re supported.”
Joel graduated from Birmingham School of Art with a Master’s in Fine Art. During his degree, he created an experimental feature-length film ‘Matter of the Heart’, exploring the psychological experience of preparing, undergoing, and recovering from surgery. The film uses extreme close-ups of ‘artifacts’ – hospital documentation, souvenirs, and surroundings - as trigger points for a confessional internal monologue. For individuals like Joel, Kerry’s research into cardiac nursing is life changing.
