I am mulling over the idea of making this available in audio. I have seen other blogs where the authors have done this.
I have a PC, a microphone and a copy of Audacity (which is moderately up to date). How hard can it be?
However, I am evaluating videos with the occasional critical air about people’s voices. I can hardly compare myself to Morgan Freeman. Hence, I could be opening myself up to a set of (justified) criticism.
Whilst I consider that as a future option, let’s take a look at today’s video.
We return to Moran CORE which has been a favourite of ours on more than one occasion.
Today’s video is this one:
Basic B scan Examination Techniques 1
And for once I am content that I have not reviewed this video previously.
As always, in our peruse of this channel, we find a professionally produced video. When we find a professionally produced video, it usually includes notes:
Reasonably succinct notes in this case which, of course, leaves us thirsty for more understanding. (Oh, just me then).
It is just over six and a half minutes and so positively a glimmer in comparison to some we have reviewed.
Comments are not permitted. (usually a great idea) however the upshot of which is that we have no clue as to whether other ASMR fans have found this one. (In all likelihood they have).
Definition:
A “B scan” turns out to be ultrasound.
The video’s introduction is without music (wahey). But also, without any details of the participants (boo). The medical professional has an excellent voice and there is little obtrusive background noise. (Heaven be praised). Even the habitual air-conditioning noise seems to have been given instructions to “keep it down a bit”.
The exam proceeds at a measured pace and there is no hint of elevated voices, such as when talking to a classroom. This is quite a surprising combination and one which marks this video as suitable for the Procrastination Pen playlist.
Given the video is at this standard, it seems sensible to locate other videos with the same participants. However, given we do not know for certain who they are, there is the need to identify another technique.
In this case, I searched the channel for “B Scan” and there are a number of such videos. I then filtered visually to include only those with visually the same participants. This gives us:
Basic B Scan Examination Techniques 2
As for the previous video, so for this one. Perhaps the volume is a little increased. Possibly the air conditioning has decided to up its participation a little. But otherwise, much the same. Even down to the lack of start-up music. The notes are similar and I think, therefore, no longer worthy of reviewing.
The video is another short one at a bit over five and a half minutes. The participants are the same but, again, they are unidentified. There are no comments permitted.
The medical professional still has a calm voice but is now a bit more “projecting to a room”, which is sad given the standard of the previous video.
I still think it is worthy of inclusion in the Procrastination Pen playlist. However, as regular readers will know, it may still get despatched to the archive list if after a while it turns out to be more irritating than I first thought. (Some videos do not stand up well to repeated listening).
Basic B Scan Examination Techniques 3
The more alert amongst you will have noticed a theme to the titles so far. This does not persist, so don’t take it for granted. A little less than three and a half minutes. It isn’t around for long. I’m not a fan of artificially combining videos. However, in this case, I think I would make an exception. If I had some dispensation, I would combine videos 1, 2 and 3 into one video as it would be more helpful for people drifting off, and to delay the inevitable YouTube advert interference for as long as it is feasible to do so.
This one is more like the last video than the first one. It is a little louder than the first video and the air conditioning is certainly more noticeable. However, I still think it makes it into the Procrastination Pen playlist. Let me know if you disagree.
Immersion Techniques
The titles no longer follow a theme and neither does the length of the videos which seemed to be reducing. Now we have a video at just less than four and a quarter minutes in length. The same participants, the same noise levels, the same absence of music of any variety.
I think that the medical professional has decided that the virtual audience isn’t quite paying the level of attention that she would like and so, on occasion, raises her voice quite a bit. However, the examination is still nicely paced. I am still of a mind to put this in the Procrastination Pen playlist, but I keep the entire list under review.
Biometry
The starting image is startling (even alarming) as if the patient has recently been liberated from the Borg ship and needs eye implants removing. The video is brief at less than 3 minutes and shares the characteristics of videos that have gone before. So, if you can get past that first image, there is nothing scary in it.
That’s it for this week. Hopefully you found at least one video here that you enjoyed.
The Moran Core playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.
If you find yourself tired in front of the TV, but by the time you’ve got into bed somehow circumstances have conspired to leave you wide awake, it can mean that you lie there looking at the ceiling and feeling a sense of frustration and panic as the minutes and hours pass and still you are not getting the rest you hoped for.
In these circumstances I find it useful to distract myself with some other activity and of late, the restful video has proven to be relatively useful. Not a panacea, but one tool in the toolbox to help get off to sleep.
Today’s video comes from a channel we have explored before of which more in a minute.
The video is this one:
Respiratory Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)
and at nine and a half minutes definitely not the longest such video we have reviewed.
As a professionally produced video it has notes (oh, what a lot of notes)
This video provides a guide to respiratory examination, including real-time auscultation sounds of common pathology such as:
– Coarse crackles
– Fine crackles
– Wheeze
– Stridor
The ability to carry out a thorough respiratory examination is something every medic needs to master. This video aims to give you an idea of what’s required in the OSCE and you can then customise the examination to suit your own personal style.
Always adhere to your medical school/local hospital guidelines when performing examinations or clinical procedures. DO NOT perform any examination or procedure on patients based purely upon the content of these videos. Geeky Medics accepts no liability for loss of any kind incurred as a result of reliance upon the information provided in this video.
Some people have found this video useful for ASMR purposes.”
In fact, I edited the notes down a bit or they would comprise a fair amount of the entire blog article.
Interesting that a channel dedicated to medical examination tuition should mention ASMR in that way and quite unusual. The comments indicate that ASMR fans are just lapping this up, so it all bodes well.
Fortunately, the start-up music is very muted. The participants are Andrew, a final year medical student and James Alexander D.o.B. 13/12/1989 (that’s December if you use a dating system other than that used in the UK).
Straight away, Andrew has a very good voice and has a relaxing style of presentation. The pace is measured (unlike the frenetic approach of some nursing student videos). Sadly, this means that YouTube gets the opportunity to slot in a few of its noisier and more obtrusive adverts which hopefully will not be happening to you as you’re watching/listening to this.
There are some rather unpleasant lung-related sounds which are unwelcome for our purposes, but may well be useful in the educational context which, let’s face it, is what this video is intended for.
This has two hundred and eighteen videos as at the date I am checking it and I will not be reviewing all of those anytime soon. It appears that the Andrew and James combination appear in a fair subset of them as well.
In this case, I decided to explore the channel using the term “respiratory” to determine what else we could find. We start out with some YouTube shorts, which by their nature don’t run for long, and so I am a little averse to them for the purpose which we are attempting to put them to. It won’t stop me using a really good one though.
Respiratory Exam OSCE Tips
This sounds a bit like Sammy in “Over the Hedge”, it is at two hundred miles per hour. I’m sure it is designed to get a ton of information into a tiny amount of time but heck it is as restful as Piccadilly Circus. It’s a shame too, because the participant would appear to have a good voice.
Respiratory Exam OSCE Tips
The same participant, the same format and the same comments as for the previous video.
Respiratory Examination Signs in COPD – OSCE Guide
Oh no background music, in fact entirely background music. The comments are presented on the screen rather than spoken. This makes this video not desperately useful for our purposes.
Lung sounds (respiratory auscultation sounds)
At under one and one quarter minutes this is not hanging about and it contains some very unpleasant sounds as well. Not one I’m going to use in the Procrastination Pen playlist.
Respiratory History Taking – OSCE Guide
This time a bit over eighteen minutes so a more substantial video. No obvious ASMR related comments (which might be bad news). Very brief startup music (thankfully). It is narrated by Dr Chris Jefferies who has a good voice.
Sadly, it does not include a medical examination as such and so it is a bit marginal for our purposes.
It is a bit of a presentation-format and as such not that fascinating I suspect for anyone not directly studying this subject area.
It is probably tolerable for the Procrastination Pen playlist but may suffer a future weeding activity.
Lung sounds made easy
Back to another YouTube short which includes some rather unpleasant sounds on it. I don’t think this one is much use to us.
Percussion & Auscultation of the Lungs – OSCE Guide | Clip
This one is four minutes long, so not huge by any means. It has the brief startup music still and has the slow measured approach of the first video we considered in this blog article. However, it also includes all the unpleasant lung-related noises so I am going to discount this from the Procrastination Pen playlist.
This is just under eight and a half minutes. Posted nine years ago at the time I am looking at it. Andrew Pugh features again. There is startup music which is way too funky. The “patient” this time is Dan Page (I believe.) I’m sure I get the names wrong a good deal of the time when relying upon listening alone). His D.o.B is 01/01/1995 (which is January whichever dating system you’re currently using).
Andrew continues to have a good voice although this has a distinct echoey sound as if they have not yet ironed out the microphone approach for the recording.
Dan looks like he needed much more sleep recently than he apparently got but as he does not get to say much those people listening are unlikely to notice. The ward area where the recording is taking place is utterly deserted. How they managed to achieve this I do not know. Perhaps the clue is in Dan’s tiredness, 4am on a Sunday recording possibly.
This one is a little less than ten minutes. More of the funky music to start. I’m not sure why people consider this a great idea. Andrew Pugh returns. Alan Johnson is the “patient”. Twelve years ago (when the video was posted) Alan was apparently thirty seven although he looks about nineteen.
Andrew remains on form voice wise. In fact, where the video lacks intrusive noises, they have all been good where they feature Andrew (rather like videos featuring Dr James Gill).
Andrew has on a badge which seems to indicate that this is at Newcastle University.
He appears to have studied here 2007-2012 and then again 2014-2015.
Newcastle as expected has its own YouTube channel. The crest associated with that channel looks very like the one on Andrew’s badge which I think confirms this.
Interestingly the closing credits state that Colin Brewster is the patient so Alan Johnson may well not exist.
The Geeky Medics playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.
The further we get into 2025 the more people are becoming obsessed with sleep. This is probably the rectifying of the complete disregard that has been shown to it in previous decades.
I can remember certain public figures boasting that they needed little sleep (as if that was a good thing) and subsequently it being discovered that they were making up that sleep through napping.
What is currently missing is the configuring of work practices to respect sleep. Putting health before GDP would send a very significant message here.
There also seems to be little requirement for taking noise into account when designing and building housing, which has its own consequences. As is usual in such circumstances recommendations are around purchasing noise cancelling technology rather than ensuring houses are not exposed to excessive noise. (For example, before building them in the first place). Putting health before profits would send a significant message here.
If you’re in the, no doubt large, group of people exposed to excessive noise when you’re trying to sleep, I have found that having a noise playing of your own choosing can help. It depends on the noise and when it is happening. For example, a one-off sound at 2am, from a loud car say, can disrupt the rest of your sleep. A consistent noise that you grow used to through exposure may be less disruptive.
In any case, I have found as one gets older sensitivity to noise, when sleeping, seems to increase. The only way to react seems to be to take action yourself. Noise cancelling headphones can help. Although I find frequent use of these really hurts the ears eventually. A back track such as white noise (several generators are available) or, my favourite, a nice relaxing video can also be positive.
Statements that older people need less sleep have not proven correct in my case. I get less sleep, I am more tired, so I wonder how universally such findings apply.
In the drive to provide more relaxing videos for you, here is another blog item on exactly that subject.
Today’s video is already part of a playlist; however, it comes from a channel that I have regularly exploited for material so I have to be careful to avoid duplication in this area. If you spot duplication, do let me know.
The Exam for Ankle & Foot Pain – Stanford Medicine 25
As we have previously established this channel produces videos of consistent quality and as we would expect each video comes with a descriptive set of notes:
“19 Jul 2018 Stanford Medicine 25: Musculoskeletal Exam
This video is brought to you by the Stanford Medicine 25 to teach you the common causes of foot and ankle pain and how to diagnose them by the physical exam.
The Stanford Medicine 25 program for bedside medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine aims to promote the culture of bedside medicine to make current and future clinicians and other healthcare provides better at the art of physical diagnosis and more confident at the bedside of their patients.
Comments are permitted and, as expected, ASMR fans have been here before me. This probably means it is a good choice of video (although some less high-quality ones sometimes pass this test).
It is just less than seven and a half minutes, so not huge in terms of videos we have covered previously.
Of course, there is that bugbear of any ASMR video fan – the musical startup. Someday I will come across the command to dictate the start time of the video and such music will be banished forever.
This one features Dr Brinda Christopher again with whom we are well familiar.
Dr Christopher as we have established before has an excellent voice for such videos. It is great that we are re-acquainting ourselves with her. Chad is the patient (again).
There is some background noise (air conditioning again perhaps).
There are so many medical terms in this one that I am not going to attempt to define them – I’m guessing that you are not here to learn how to perform an ankle examination. If you are what a pleasant surprise and welcome.
The video is part of the Stanford Medicine 25 channel where there are eighty-five videos. I have no doubt that we will be sampling many more of these in the future.
The video we have just seen is part five of an eight-part playlist. In order to avoid covering areas that I will have covered before, I will limit myself to reviewing the remaining two videos in this playlist. Future blog items will catch up on any missing areas I am certain.
The Exam for Knee Pain – Stanford Medicine 25
There is startup music of course, comments and notes as before and the same two participants – so far, so consistent. At just less than eight minutes it is also of a similar length to the last one.
The great thing about a professional video is that if you liked it you may well like videos from the same provider. Many student videos we have seen can be great, only for the next video from the same source to be totally unsuitable.
The Exam for Shoulder Pain – Stanford Medicine 25
As before, comments indicate ASMR fans are all over this, and we have proven that they have good taste. The only way these could be improved would be to remove startup music and put a bomb in the air conditioning.
But in comparison to some noises we have heard in other videos, this is minor quibble area.
One great aspect is a complete absence of loud equipment clunks, and bangs, which other videos seem unable to avoid. We have the same two participants here and to ensure I do not overlap with material from the same channel covered previously I will make this the last video of this blog item.
This one is a little less than ten and a half minutes so quite a bit longer than the two previous ones. However you may find, like me, that you do not notice the extra time.
I wish you well in your drive to get more sleep.
The Stanford medicine playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.
Re-reading some sleep advice that I had knocking around, I notice that one is supposed to sleep the same number of hours every night and if you don’t, then there will be a reckoning to come.
Added to this is the requirement that you go to bed at the same time, every night and awaken at the same time, every morning.
That sounds a great discipline and I would love to recommend it. However, I find myself utterly jiggered by close of play on a Friday and I take to bed and sleep till the gods have made off to find another planet (or for a very long time anyway).
I always found that this was my little weekly restorative and I’m sure that for many years it was. However, it does not seem to be as effective any longer and I am moderately convinced that is to do with ageing.
In the absence of changing my sleep pattern completely (and for those of you who also feel unable to do so), I’ll stick to finding restful videos that may encourage you to make the most of whatever sleep you are able to get. If you do find yourself crashing on a Friday night, desperate to make up for any lost time during the week, you now know I will not be judging you.
Today’s video is, again, taken from that deep well of videos which seemingly has no end on YouTube; the student assessment video.
Head-to-Toe Physical Assessment
The medical professional is Vivian and from the start has a very good voice. Vivian has on a top which identifies the college where presumably this is filmed but, sadly, I cannot make out what it says.
There are no notes with the video; there is one unhelpful comment and only two subscribers. This is either a journey to something new or a warning that this is not going to be that useful.
In fact, the sound is quite muted. The air conditioning is ever present (as we are used to by now) the patient is Lindsey Preston (probably misspelled), D.o.B. 03/03/97, whichever date system you use. I make that March.
There are the usual questions officially designed to check the person vs their record, but of course no record exists so it is, as usual, acting.
Lindsey (I’m sticking with that spelling now) announces that she is at Valencia Memorial Hospital (well I’m pretty sure that is what she says – it is a bit quick). Lindsey has a top on with the same appearance as that worn by Vivian it appears to say Valencia College nursing which might confirm that.
The tops worn by the nurses on that website do appear similar if in a different colour.
The college of course has it’s own YouTube channel.
Apart from the air conditioning there are no nasty intrusive noises. Vivian even seems able to move equipment around without the loud clangs that have punctuated some videos now in the Procrastination Pen archive list.
Her approach is methodical and gentle.
The video is just a short one at a little over six minutes.
The channel is Vivian Tran it contains just this one video uploaded in 2018 which is about the same date that it was filmed.
So, I’m sorry people, but that is all for this time.
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.
A week in which I have had sympathy for those who are struggling to sleep and, in which, I have been quite dependent on the playlist for a restful breathing space. I’ve been active in weeding activity every time I happened across a more jarring moment.
I am researching the idea of trimming videos without actually hosting them. I haven’t made progress yet, but I live in hope that I may soon despatch funky startup music.
Today’s video another one properly designed for tuition of future medical professionals. Not the longest we’ve seen at a bit more than sixteen and a half minutes.
Neurological Assessment
There are moments of humour at the start including knocking on a surface to mimic entry. The patient is introduced as Mr Hoffman – which probably isn’t the correct spelling. The medical professional “Nancy” is from Harper College.
As we’d expect Harper College has its own channel the duty of which, I suspect, is to tell you that Harper College is fantastic, which no doubt it is.
Our purpose though, is the pursuit of restful videos. This one starts well by ignoring funky startup music. The Air conditioning noises are de rigueur for this sort of thing now, it would almost be rude to have a video without them.
Surprisingly for a professional video, there are no notes at all. There are plenty of comments, lots of strange comments as expected, but no obvious ASMR comments. Sometimes this does not bode well for the video.
Nancy does not have a classically restful voice; in fact, Mr Hoffman seems to have the better voice here. Thankfully, Mr Hoffman gets a fair amount of talk time in this one. The air conditioning is obviously a session musician paid by the volume, it is more intrusive even than we have come to expect.
The president at the time is Obama, so sometime between 2009 and 2017. The video was posted in 2015, so possibly shortly after it was filmed.
I think he refers to the medical professional as Nancy Haborector, that is so unlikely to be correct but it is what it sounds like. I think it is more likely Nancy Haberichter apologies Nancy if you are reading this.
Mr Hoffmann also talks to “Amy” who is behind the camera. That is a slightly off-putting event, in that I am used to dismissing the camera person from consciousness as if the filming was automatic and the interactions just between two. Amy, from that point onwards, makes a few contributions.
There are loud equipment noises in this as well.
Watch out around fifteen and a half minutes. Mr Hoffmann is obviously extremely ticklish and eventually the camera woman (Amy), Mr Hoffmann and Nancy are all taken up with laughter which fortunately brings the video to a conclusion.
The channel is Nursing Assessment and Skills, there are thirty-two videos and no playlists at all. So the normal mechanism of thinning out videos under review by using a convenient playlist is not available.
It turns out that Nancy is in the majority of such videos and Mr Hoffman is in a fair subset of them. So thinning by that mechanism isn’t looking too great either.
I notice that it appears that Mr Hoffmann is in thirteen of the videos and this is just too many for one post. So arbitrarily I am going to limit this post to three videos and we can come back again in a future blog post.
Basic Patient Assessment
This has the same two participants and is just over fifteen minutes. However, it is much more recent and it has notes “8 Jan 2019
This is the basic assessment that nursing students will perform at the bedside. You will notice that the lights go out when upper extremity assessment is started. So just keep watching. Nurses must be able to adjust the plan when necessary.”
Again, there are a variable set of comments around the video, but no obvious ASMR comments.
Here the volume seems to be more appropriate, and the air conditioning is keeping it in reserve for the last music set. This time, Mr Hoffman introduces himself as Mr Reagan. I’m used to him as Hoffman and so he will stay Mr Hoffman for this article.
Nancy seems to be more muted as well, which actually works, and this instantaneously feels a better video for us than the last one.
Again, they are filming at the Harper Hospital, the president is Donald Trump who was president from 2017 to 2021. The video was posted in 2019 which could therefore have been shortly after it was filmed.
General Survey
This is a whole lot different. Firstly the setting – domestic not hospital, secondly length – the video is just two minutes long. No notes, no ASMR related comments. There is relatively little background noise but it starts a bit loud.
However, it is amazing how much influence that air conditioning noise has. It is easy to disregard how loud it is until it isn’t there and then I really want it to be absent all the time.
Although short, this video is the best in terms of restful of the three in this post. In the end it might be the only one to survive the regular weeding process. We shall see.
The Nursing Assessment playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article, why not follow this blog.
If you’ve woken from another Nytol-fuelled sleep and feel like a bear was sitting on your head all night, it might be that you will be better off trying to relax into sleep by yourself without the aid of chemicals.
For many of us this is far easier said than done. I have found that falling asleep with other people’s noises all around – cars on the road, breathing of my partner, mice in the loft overhead, or bird squabbles in the hedges nearby are sufficiently distracting to put off sleep for quite some hours.
In this atmosphere the masking of those noises with a level of background noise seems to be moderately effective. The Procrastination Pen playlist may be effective for you in that it provides a number of videos taken from YouTube selected for their calm talking, lack of extraneous noises, and potential ASMR effects (in those people lucky enough to get ASMR effects, in any case).
Today’s video comes from a perennially useful source for us which is the student medical exam video. This blog would probably run out of steam quite quickly if this kind of video did not exist. Sadly, the quality of such videos is often, at best, variable, such that many videos get evaluated and few are chosen.
Today’s video is this one:
Head to Toe Assessment
The medical professional is wearing a very large identity badge indicating that she is Julianna and that she is an undergraduate student.
There are no notes with this video. However, comments are permitted and, as expected, ASMR fans have been here long before me.
It is just over thirty-five- and three-quarter minutes, so moderately substantial in terms of videos that we have recently seen on this blog.
Julianna announces that she is Julianna Cook, a Family Nurse Practitioner. I think the institution mentioned is “Auburn University” (it’s spoken rather quickly).
Auburn has a college of nursing and so it sounds like it might be a good fit for a video of this type.
Its channel reveals that it has a brand very similar to the icon on the badge that Julianna is wearing, so it seems very probable this is where Julianna is presenting from.
Julianna appears to have left Auburn in 2020 the video was posted in 2019.
The patient seems to be in tip-top shape (better numbers than I am able to deliver for example). The normal question and answer session must have occurred prior to this video so there is no clue as to who the patient is.
The camera angle is a little strange in this one. Probably so that it could be set out of the way of the participants. But the net result is that they are some distance from it. This is not important if you are simply listening, but sadly, it has some effect on the audio as well which is itself a bit flat and distant. Not as notably, as in some other videos that have featured in this blog.
There are some moments where progress is slowed by the medical professional failing to remember. However, overall, the assessment seems moderately efficient (if thirty-odd minutes can be thought of as efficient).
We are here for the sound which is not excessively loud, no loud bangs of moving equipment for example. There is of course the ever-present air conditioning noise which seems to be a feature of these videos.
There is a fair amount of humour in the video which is perhaps less restful than might otherwise be the case (laughter can be a bit loud). I don’t think this precludes it from membership of the Procrastination Pen playlist but it might cause it to be a victim of future weeding.
There are moments of actual gentleness in this but only a video editor would be able to make this a truly superior video, and of course, the video isn’t mine to do that to.
The channel is Julianna Cook. There are four videos, including the one above, and eight hundred and fifty-seven subscribers as at the date I am looking at it. There is no video posted more recently than three years ago.
Julianna’s Greatest Show
This is just less than five and a quarter minutes, and has some notes. It states it is “NURS 7246 Pharmacology Project”. 7246 appears to be another course at Auburn.
Unlike the previous video no ASMR fans have commented on this one.
This starts loud, and I think is designed to be a presentation. There is loud music in it, I think it is supposed to be entertaining but not restful. It does make interesting viewing. I think the chances of falling asleep to it are out there with winning the lottery.
Not a Procrastination Pen playlist candidate but I imagine a good fun video if this is your area of interest.
7226 NP Roles Video
This is a presentation, it is quite loud, it isn’t really restful. There are no notes. There are no comments from ASMR fans, which given the content is perhaps not surprising. The most interesting elements are interviews with people apparently from the public. Herman Cook for example has quite a good voice. However, the background noise is a tad off-putting. It is louder even than we are usually used to.
James Warren’s interview has so much extraneous noise associated with it that I’m surprised it is included. I’m guessing filters are not a thing.
Virginia Cook has a great voice but she is swamped by background noise.
Stephanie has a section with minimal extraneous noise but her voice is quite a lot louder and so not helpful from our perspective.
Linda Condon has a good voice but I think they videoed her footage beside the M25, boy it is loud.
All in all, this video isn’t going to work for us and it will not go into the Procrastination Pen playlist.
The last (and newest) video is this one:
Croup Presentation
This is just over five minutes and it starts loud. It continues loud. It is a presentation after all.
This one is just not for us.
Just the one video this time then.
More time for you to get on with your work. More next time.
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article why not follow this blog.
For those people who actually read my blog articles at intervals, yay, welcome readers. You will notice that I am drawing again at the well of a popular channel for this blog. This site is designed for education purposes. However, it turns out to be pretty good in terms of relaxation as well.
Judging by the comments I am confident that I am not the only one to think so.
The video is this one:
Examination of the Spleen (Stanford Medicine 25)
The great advantage is that it already comes as part of a playlist i.e. this one
I also notice that all of the videos in this playlist are short ones, so this is not going to keep you for very long.
This first video is just over three and a half minutes long so blink and you’ll miss it, in comparison to some we have covered.
Initially the video starts quietly but just when I was ready to give thanks for the lack of startup music, some startup music begins. Fortunately, it is brief.
The person giving the examination (and commenting at the same time) has an excellent voice for our purposes. In this case it is Dr Verghese – who we have encountered before.
The next video in the same playlist is this one:
Percussion of the Spleen (Stanford Medicine 25)
The notes for these videos are very similar to those for the Stanford Medicine 25 videos that we have previously featured:
“17 Mar 2014
This Stanford Medicine 25 video was created in conjunction with Stanford’s AIM lab teaching the percussion of the spleen.
The Stanford Medicine 25 is a Stanford School of Medicine initiative to teach and promote the bedside physical exam. Here you will find videos teaching bedside physical exam techniques.
This time narrated by Dr George Meyer Gastroenterology the University of California, Davis.
This time the startup music has a life all its own and just will not be suppressed. It is louder, longer and more energetic than previous videos in this article. There’s also an introductory narrator who is too loud and therefore not at all restful. In an ideal world this front part of the video would be cropped right off. The reason it is worth persisting with is that Dr Meyer’s voice is every bit as good as that of Dr Verghese.
The video is just over three and a half minutes so you haven’t got a great deal of time to enjoy the experience.
It’s quiet, methodical, instructive (should you want that) and then goes and spoils it all by having the peppy startup music repeat at the end and to top it all that loud narration, followed by a jarring copyright announcement as well.
Despite that I like Dr Meyer’s voice so I am going to give all three of these a try in the playlist.
The Stanford Medicine playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article why not follow this blog.
Sadly, as I regularly prove, sometimes nothing at all is going to work in the drive to get some sleep. Some switch in the brain seems to resist getting thrown into the correct position and although you are tired, sleep just will not come.
These kinds of occasions used to drive me up the wall as I fought to get control and tried with increasing vigour to gain that blissful rest. It doesn’t work. The only option is to just let go, 5am is coming round and you’ll still be looking at the ceiling when it does. It is better to fill the time with something restful. The Procrastination Pen playlist is designed for just such an eventuality.
Today’s video is another professionally produced one:
Hip Examination – Orthopaedics
In common with a number of professionally produced videos it has notes with it: “28 Nov 2012 Clinical Examinations
This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates how to perform an Orthopaedic examination of the hip joint. It is part of a series of videos covering Orthopaedic examinations and is linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com)
This video was produced in collaboration with Oxford Medical Illustration – a department of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. For more information, please visit www.oxfordmi.nhs.uk.”
So it tells us where it was filmed.
Comments are permitted (brave that) and it turns out that other ASMR fans have been here before me (which is not unexpected).
The video at just over nine and a quarter minutes is not a huge one. There is (thankfully) no introductory music. It begins with narration but no clues as to the participants, the narrator has quite a good voice. The same person talks throughout the examination proper such that we do not hear the voices of the actual participants. This makes their participation seem like that of a mime act or worse some kind of puppet, it is a little surreal. However, if you are listening rather than watching none of this will be obvious.
The channel is Oxford Medical Education. This has thirty two videos and 142k subscribers on the day I am looking at it.
With thirty two videos it seems likely that we would be here a while. There are nine playlists, our video appears to be in a playlist called Orthopaedic Surgery which consists of only three videos including the one I first covered. I’ll focus on this playlist in order to narrow down the choice available.
All three videos exceed nine minutes and are less than ten minutes – I’m guessing there was a target in terms of running time.
The next video in the playlist is this one:
Knee Examination – Orthopaedics
A bit over nine minutes so similar to the last one. Like that one it has notes “28 Nov 2012 Clinical Examinations
This video – produced by students at Oxford University Medical School in conjunction with the faculty – demonstrates how to perform an Orthopaedic examination of the knee joint. It is part of a series of videos covering Orthopaedic examinations and is linked to Oxford Medical Education (www.oxfordmedicaleducation.com)
This video was produced in collaboration with Oxford Medical Illustration – a department of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. For more information, please visit www.oxfordmi.nhs.uk”
Again, the entire video is narrated. I would say the voice is marginally superior to the last one for our purposes.
Shoulder Examination – Orthopaedics
Nine and a half minutes so slightly longer and in this one the patient changes. In the previous two the patient was the same and the medical professional changed. Now we have a patient change and a medical professional change.
The notes are very similar to what has gone before so I will not repeat them.
The narration is not quite as good for our purposes as the last one. However, as is usual with professionally produced videos, they are amazing in their consistency. In this one (at last!) the medical professional gets to speak for himself and we find that his voice is not at all bad. Part way through, the video goes all sepia in appearance briefly. I’m not clear why, but given you will only be listening this will not be too distracting.
The Oxford Medical Education playlist on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article why not follow this blog.
Every once in a while I like to remind readers why we are here, what this series of blog articles on the Procrastination Pen is designed to achieve, and why you might want to read, especially if you suffer for sleep.
If you are privileged enough to get ASMR symptoms then you will already be familiar with the fact that certain sounds can have a profound effect. For some people, there are physical sensations (often referred to as tingles). For many, there is a sense of wellbeing or relaxation when a certain sound is playing.
The effect is now well documented and so recognised that even mainstream newspapers have articles on it (and not all of them are critical!)
For those not so gifted it is often the case that quiet and calming sounds can be more effective at promoting relaxation than absolute silence (if there is anywhere in your current environment where you can achieve true silence, then you are truly privileged in any case).
For this reason, websites now carry not just articles about ASMR but videos purported to cause such relaxation or full ASMR effects. Sadly, claims for ASMR are a bit of a stretch as it seems that the sounds that cause ASMR are as individual as the person who is listening to them.
A number of people seem to find slurping noises relaxing, some prefer scratching or the sound of running water. For others, some of these sounds are positively off-putting. One person’s ASMR sound is another person’s grating, irritating noise.
I try, therefore, to mute any claims about ASMR for this blog as I can only comment about sounds that work for me. I like quiet voices, gentle and calm behaviour. I think there is a large subset of ASMR fans who like the same thing.
There is no shortage of videos on the popular YouTube site and many of them claim to be great for ASMR. I have listened to many. I found some were interesting, very few effective, most to be irrelevant to me.
I believe that this affects many people. How to arrive at a situation where you only get to listen to those videos which are genuinely relaxing? I considered that the only method was to listen to many – many videos and to keep a record of the ones that are genuinely relaxing for me.
There are probably several people who do the same thing. We are duplicating the effort in order to arrive at playlists of relaxing videos.
I use relaxing videos to get to sleep, I am old, I do not sleep well. There are many people who are either old or who do not sleep well and some of whom who are both old and who do not sleep well.
I have found that having a playlist of relaxing videos playing actually helps. (It would help even more if YouTube would quit playing loud and intrusive adverts during the night time hours – by which I mean any time between 21:00 and 07:00 – when I assume the majority of people have some kind of sleep window. However, I do not control YouTube or have the power even to make suggestions, so I work with what I have.)
I assume that many people would profit from having a playlist like this available to them. This blog is old and hence the name the Procrastination Pen precedes this idea by many years (Perhaps now I would call it ASMR Sleeping or something – however I assume there are many similar sites out there.)
Hence the Procrastination Pen is this blog, the Procrastination Pen is my YouTube channel which contains the playlists, the Procrastination Pen is the Facebook page which links to them, the Instagram page, the Twitter account and so on and so forth…
All of which is designed to inform people that there is a consistent effort going on attempting to identify suitable videos, to create a playlist of such videos and to share the playlist so that they do not have to do the same thing.
With the many ASMR channels on YouTube, I realised that there is little margin in reviewing those (unless there is demand), so I focus instead on videos which were created for another purpose i.e. whose relaxation effects are an unintended side effect rather than the main aim.
For a while now, the focus has been any variant of a medical examination video as these seem a rich source of material. I make occasional forays into other areas.
The blog allows comments, via which you can make suggestions (sensible ones I may even consider for the playlist).
The playlist is also used by me, regularly. One upshot of which is that if I find any of the included videos are not as relaxing as at first thought they get removed.
This should ensure that the playlist remains true to its original intent which is to help people get to sleep and to drift off again if you, as many of us do, wake several times during the night.
If you are still reading this far, well done, you’ve proven that you have a great span of attention and your reward can be today’s video. Which is this one:
Abdominal Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)
At a bit less than eight and a half minutes this is not a huge video it is a professionally produced video and so has notes, and what notes, possibly the most extensive notes I have read thus far on any of the videos so far reviewed. For this reason I am only including the edited highlights in this article:
The ability to carry out a thorough and slick abdominal examination is something every medic needs to master. This video aims to give you an idea of what’s required in the OSCE and you can then customise the examination to suit your own personal style.
Check out our other awesome clinical skills resources including:
So unusually for inadvertent ASMR videos this one pins its colours to the mast up front. It’s a medical video but the notes directly state “Some people have found this video useful for ASMR purposes”.
Comments are permitted and as expected some of these comments do not appear to be from medical students. I think we can conclude that ASMR fans are all over this. I rarely find a video where this is not the case. If there is a relaxing video a few hundred or more likely thousand ASMR fans will already have seen it and often have left some very esoteric comments. I guess it is a community thing which I do not fully comprehend.
The video is calm, quiet, methodical and is more or less perfect from our perspective.
The medical professional is “Andrew” and is a final-year medical student. It isn’t clear which course, or where, Andrew is studying.
The patient is “James Alexander” D.o.B 13/12/1989 (that’s December in case you use a different method of describing dates to the UK one). It might be that we select other videos with James in for review in this article.
There are no objectionable background noises and the introductory music is thankfully very brief. However, the abdominal sounds might prove a bit off-putting for some. It might fall victim to a future weeding process but I intend to include it in the Procrastination Pen playlist.
The channel is not an obvious one for relaxing videos (at least by inference from the name) it is: Geeky Medics and it has 1 million subscribers. This has to be something of a record for a channel reviewed on this blog. I was expecting tens of thousands of videos therefore but in fact two hundred and sixteen videos as at today’s date.
Given “James” does not appear in the comments to the video it is probable that a simple search of the channel isn’t going to pull up videos where he is the patient.
Instead, I’ll go the old-fashioned route and scroll through the two hundred and sixteen videos in the hope of spotting him from the image placeholder for the video.
There are some video shorts that feature James, however the first has funky background music and so is not suitable for what we are looking for:
The latter one features some disturbing breathing sounds and so I think we can discount that one as well:
The next video of any length to feature James Alexander is this one:
Cardiovascular Examination – OSCE Guide
The medical professional is again Andrew.
This is consistent with the last one in terms of approach, volume, startup music. The notes are almost the same as before (I’ll cease to feature the notes now as they are much the same between videos.)
This is just over eight minutes and as before is marvellously calm. However, there are some loud heart sounds which might be off-putting.
The next video is this one:
How to record an ECG – OSCE Guide
At just less than 4 minutes it isn’t huge. The startup music remains muted here. The medical professional is “David,” his voice is not as relaxing as Andrew, but it is still pretty good.
The video is predominantly quiet with limited input from participants. It is methodical and thank goodness, because the procedure looks to be a complex one. Thankfully this time there are no noises from internal organs.
The next one is this one:
How to take an arterial blood gas (ABG) – OSCE guide
This is just less than three and a half minutes and we are back to Andrew as the medical professional – welcome back Andrew.
James is a trooper. He gets asked the same questions at the start of each of these and repeats the answers without blinking.
Those averse to needles I suggest that you just do not watch but lay back and listen, it will be certain to put you off if you actually watch this.
Here we get a concluding screen that tells us the medical student was Dr Andrew Pugh.
And the patient was James Lower
Intravenous (IV) cannulation – OSCE Guide
Seriously if you do not like blood do not watch this. Andrew returns and this video might need to be archived from the Procrastination Pen playlist at some stage as I am sure I am not alone in finding blood related videos distinctly uncomfortable to watch. (It may encourage you to listen rather than watch however).
I decided to look for where Graham Bone was senior clinical lecturer and discovered that he is at South Tees NHS Foundation Trust. These support the following universities University of Hull, University of York, Newcastle University, University of Sunderland.
Therefore, it is likely it was filmed in one of those locations.
Modified Allen’s Test
This is a short extract from one of the videos we have already seen. (It’s possible many of the other shorter videos on this channel have been sourced in the same way).
Respiratory Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)
I do get the feeling that these videos re-use material from other videos, possibly this is why James is able to blithely respond to those early questions in exactly the same way. Here we have a video just over nine and a half minutes and unsurprisingly it is very similar to those already reviewed.
This one has some quite loud (and possibly off-putting breathing related noises).
So where is Dr Gareth Hynes Respiratory Registrar and does this give us any more information about where this was filmed?
It looks like Gareth is at Oxford University Hospitals so that muddies the waters if anything.
Spine Examination – OSCE Guide
Back with Andrew and a video just less than five and a half minutes in length.
So where is Mr Tejas Yarashi Orthopaedic Registrar (ST7)?
Tejas is currently at Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust but it looks like the last time he had (ST7) as a qualifier was at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.
Lung sounds (respiratory auscultation sounds)
This is just less than one and a quarter minutes and mostly off-putting breathing related noises, I suspect we can discount this one.
So was Dr Gareth Hynes ever at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust? It appears not.
Heart murmur sounds (cardiac auscultation sounds)
Another short one at just over two minutes and is mainly heart related noises, again I think we can discount this one
So where is Dr Matthew Jackson Cardiology Registrar (ST6)? Well it turns out that I can’t locate him so I’m not too certain.
Shoulder Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)
just less than six and a quarter minutes and as for the previous videos so for this one. Andrew and James again and at this rate the blog post will be encyclopaedic, I think I will split this post into many and cover all the other videos in a subsequent blog post.
An absence of strange noises on this one though makes it a great deal more appealing.
After a period of reviewing videos I suspect that availability of ASMR material within the wider medical examination video material follows something of a normal distribution. I cannot prove it but the occurrence of truly awesome ASMR material such as Hollie Berry or Shane Brun is very rare and so they must be outliers.
More bread-and-butter material occurs somewhat regularly. The huge lift in the curve is of videos which are watchable but unsuitable. They are just not relaxing enough. Right out at the other end of the curve are some rather nasty videos which, thankfully, I rarely come across.
That being the case, the discovery of another Vicki Scott is a matter of trawling through a vast number of videos to uncover the jewel in the coal mine.
You can be certain that should I discover such a person they will be featured in this blog, and no doubt (like Dr James Gill) flagged as a favourite from that point onwards.
Today’s video is at the Hollie Berry standard which is fighting talk ASMR-wise.
Alexander technique lesson with Diana Devitt-Dawson
This is just under fourteen-and-a-quarter minutes so a quite typical length for us of late. The medical professional is Diana Devitt-Dawson the “patient” is Gita (probably misspelled). The film quality is not the greatest which is probably of little concern if you are using this to get to sleep.
Diana has a really good voice for us I think. Another smile-causing aspect is the absence of intrusive background noise which haunts some of the videos I have featured.
Comments are permitted and judging by the feedback, I am not the first person to notice how good this is for ASMR. Many are rating this above professional ASMR artists (I’ve seen a few such videos, and in many cases they are correct).
The sad thing is that the channel Diana Devitt-Dawson contains only one video and this is it.
Diana appears not to have any further entries on YouTube (this has heavy echoes of my experience with Hollie Berry).
There are reiterations of the same video featured on ASMR channels, such as this one:
Legends of ASMR – Diana Devitt-Dawson
So that’s it this time, I’m afraid.
I now think that the Alexander Technique might, potentially, be a source of more ASMR material. I’ll keep my eyes open and my search fingers poised.
The overall playlist of videos covered so far on the Procrastination Pen is here:
The videos weeded out because over time they are just not as good as the others is in this archive list:
I keep this in case subscribers to the Procrastination Pen have personal favourites that they want to hear.
The playlist of videos requiring age verification is here:
I can’t be bothered to stop my listening to log on, this interrupts the experience. You may not mind this in which case this list is for you.
I hope that you find the playlists restful and I hope you get plenty of sleep.
If you liked this blog article why not follow this blog.
The Procrastination Pen 
