Category: Physical Examination

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently I have been including a cameo role for a professional ASMR artist. I’ve limited my adventurings to videos where they are playing a medical professional to fit in with the ongoing blog theme, which has focused on medical-themed ASMR videos for well over a year now.

Once a person strays into this area though, you very quickly realise that there are a huge number of medical-themed ASMR videos and the scope for spending hours on really quite unsuitable videos is commensurately high.

After trying a few, I also happened upon another hazard which is that the first several minutes of the video is given over to the junk the sponsor of the video wants to sell. Quite a lot of heinous-instantly-disposables in such videos. It convinces me that any video organised this way is unlikely to get much space on this blog. There is quite enough intrusive time given over to advertising as it is, without it forming a part of the video itself.

This one seems to escape some of these problems:

ASMR Head to Toe Assessment 2024 [Full Body Medical Examination] | ‘Unintentional Style’ Roleplay

Sadly, there is the ever-present air conditioning noise which I would think a professional ASMR artist could ensure was dispensed with. There are also some equipment noises, including some loudish beeps, whirring equipment and clunks from moving equipment around. This is rather like many of the genuine medical videos we have reviewed. There is the sound of rubber gloves which is quite off-putting. The video is a little over forty minutes so quite substantial and as expected the tone of the presentation is nigh on perfect. In this case two recognised ASMR artists are collaborating so in a sense it is two for one in that both voices here are excellent (if they weren’t then the number of subscribers would be something of a surprise).

The channel is Ivy B ASMR it has 350K subscribers and 1.9K videos so someone deeply loves this ASMR artist (or rather quite a number of someones).

So, well worthy of consideration, I think. I will place it into the sweetie jar list. However, bear in mind this list does not receive anything like the attention of the main Procrastination Pen playlist as it has not been the focus of this blog (at least so far).

So, after that brief sojourn into videos created deliberately for ASMR, back to the inadvertent ASMR video and, perhaps the slightly more difficult task of finding a video with potentially relaxing effects amongst the large number of videos which are unsuitable.

Today, we return to Stanford, which has been a rich well of restful videos.

Venous Testing

This is just a little over five minutes in length, so blink and it is already gone. It is a professional video and so, as we would expect, there are notes. “4 Jul 2012

Visit: stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu

This video is from the Stanford Medicine 25: an initiative to enhance the culture of bedside medicine and physical diagnosis. Visit our website to learn more. The ankle brachial index is one of our “25” diagnostic techniques that we teach.”

There are no ASMR-related comments and quite frequently this means it isn’t a desperately great video.

It starts with the standard Stanford musical intro (boo hiss). The medical professional is John Cooke MD and John has an excellent voice. There is a slight background hiss which is unfortunate, but nothing as bad as some of the air conditioning we have heard.

There is a doppler device in use which some people might find off-putting. The noises from this device seem to get louder and more explosive as the video goes on. There is also the standard Stanford end music as well.

We have visited the Stanford Medicine 25 channel prior to this and we know that the videos tend to be divided into playlists.

This video comes from the playlist Stanford Medicine 25: Ankle Brachial Index. There is only one other video in this playlist, and it is this one:

Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) Test: How to Perform

The notes do not introduce anything substantially new. This one is also presented by John; this time the video is seven- and three-quarter minutes long. There are comments and this time, the odd one might be ASMR-related (the comments as usual are variable). John continues to have a great voice in this video. But we know what is coming when the doppler device is produced again.

The doppler device does produce the odd distracting noise. This is a shame because I do like John’s voice and the pacing of the presentation. It is only because of this that I am considering running with these two in the playlist to begin with. Sadly it is quite likely that both will ultimately get culled for the archive list.

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.

Until next time.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

For a little while, I have been reviewing a professional ASMR artist with the understanding that as they have set themselves up to produce ASMR material, that material had better be top notch. That is, I am disposed to be more critical of such videos than I would be of a similar inadvertent ASMR video.

This one caught my eye because it is seeking to emulate the very type of video that I habitually review i.e. the inadvertent ASMR video:

ASMR Head to Toe Medical Exam | Cranial Nerves, Physical Assessment | “Unintentional” Style

It is not completely quiet I notice; there are equipment noises, background noises, noises from participants moving around and using medical equipment. In all, not as quiet as I would expect for a professional video. The voices are of course as close to perfect as you can achieve and we’d expect that. It is setting its stall by the ASMR flag after all.

It is odd to find the participants whispering, but not unwelcome in the scheme of things. It does make the occasional noise seem louder than it would do otherwise.

The video is just under forty four minutes and so quite long compared to a lot of the inadvertent ASMR material we have been reviewing of late.

There are notes “308,882 views 16 Nov 2024 #asmrunintentional #asmrmedical #asmrheadtotoe

Let me know if you can spot the surprise towards the end!!! ASMR Head To Toe Medical Exam | Cranial Nerves, Physical Assessment | “Unintentional” Style

SUBSCRIBE FOR DAILY VIDEOS https://bit.ly/Subscribe2MadP

my personal insta:  / just_madspam 

asmr insta:   / madpasmr 

For collaborations: madpasmr@gmail.com

Wear Headphones

This is an ASMR medical role-play, I’m not a real doctor and if you have a medical condition please consult with your physician. This video does not display accurate information therefore none of the information should be taken as accurate/truthful facts.

#asmrheadtotoe  #asmrunintentional #asmrmedical”

The channel is MAD P ASMR. This has 603K subscribers and 940 videos (no one need say that ASMR is not popular).

I found that MAD P ASMR also has an online review. It is good to see that there are other bloggers involved in a similar area.

As with other professional ASMR artists we have so far seen, the attractiveness of the participants tends to be towards the well above average level and so I remain unclear if it is the quality of the sound that is the main appeal (and quite probably it is not).

There are comments, of course, and surprisingly they predominantly are positive. MAD P ASMR is obviously a well-respected contributor.

As we have seen before in a video of this length, YouTube is going to hammer in advertising as frequently as it can get away with and quite a lot of that advertising is not going to be restful. This is a major downside of using YouTube for this kind of material.

Around the twenty-seven-minute mark the video continues but one of the participants has left and a new one has joined. That seems odd and usually I would have thought this the perfect cue to start a whole new video.

I’ll refer to this as the second half of the video (although it’s more like the final seventeen minutes) and it seemed to me to start a little louder. However, this, for me, makes it seem a bit more realistic as all the whispering did not seem the kind of thing your average medical professional commonly engages in. The voices are still muted and probably still much too whispery to be considered a model of real life medical professional behaviour.

At least the part where the patient is talking but the medical professional is just typing into a computer seems representative of real life. (I’m not certain the typing noises are exactly what I would call restful though).

There are various unwrapping noises, which perhaps some people will find appealing. They don’t really appeal to me that much. There also seems to be a quite elevated set of blood pressure instrument noises. The sound of palpating the back sounded more like someone hitting a drum, so I am not sure how the microphone was set up for this.

In the final moments the medical professional starts spraying the back of the “patient” with something which appears to have a glitter-like substance in it. A bit surreal for a medical exam.

In all though, this just adds up to my being extra critical because this is a professional ASMR video after all. I still think it is worthy of review and I am going to add it into the Sweetie Jar list.

Well, that has been a somewhat lengthy diversion from the real meat-and-potatoes work of this blog which is to find inadvertent ASMR videos. (i.e. real videos which may have some relaxing effects rather than ASMR professionals playing doctors and nurses).

Today’s material follows on from an earlier blog post. In this, I introduced the Geeky Medics channel and we got to see videos featuring Dr James Lower and Dr Andrew Pugh.

My preferred method for refining which videos we would review from the channel was to look for videos that featured James.

This led to a very long blog post and enough extra videos for several more blog posts besides. I arbitrarily divided them up for part 1 and this is part 2.

Hip Joint Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)

There is startup music but different startup music to the videos we saw in the last article. James is in for another examination with Andrew. This time all kinds of leg manipulations are seen but what we hear is similarly quiet and methodical to all those videos that went before.

As we saw in the previous article there are notes – but I won’t repeat them here. Comments are permitted and as before some of those comments are not fully helpful.

This video is just over four and a half minutes. It is so speedy that it is hardly there at all. There is of course background (air conditioning) noise. It is almost rude to have a video without it. Although when it does happen, it is so – so welcome.

Knee Joint Examination – OSCE Guide (Latest)

The video is six and three quarter minutes this time and if you read the previous article, this video will be familiar. (Some elements of the video are obviously just repetitions of filming completed for other videos).

Selecting James as a method of thinning out videos has resulted in a sample of a good percentage of the videos on the website. Overall, this will bulk out the playlist (which really wasn’t the aim).

In order not to tax your reading patience, I think six videos is going to be sufficient for this article.

Dix-Hallpike Test & Epley Manoeuvre – OSCE Guide

This is just under two and a half minutes so it is not hanging around this one. Andrew and James appear again but James appears different and the video is posted much more recently up to now the videos have been six years old but this one is a slimline five years ago.

The new startup music is firmly established and dogging the start of the videos. Andrew’s voice seems to be at a higher volume for some reason and the background hiss a little more established.

Here we have Mr Ben Cosway as ENT Registrar for the first time in the credits at the end of the video as “Reviewer”.

Lymphoreticular Examination – OSCE Guide (lymph node, spleen and liver examination)

This one is a little over four- and three-quarter minutes in length. Startup music, tick, Andrew and James, tick, hissing background noise, tick, initial pre-amble, tick, move onto actual examination, tick, (of which a fair amount is actually in silence – heaven be praised no background noises). In summary, it is just like those we have already seen.

This time the reviewer is Dr Adam Gibb Clinical research fellow in Lymphoma, he seems to be at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust which is in Manchester.

Subcutaneous Injection (SC injection) – OSCE Guide

This one is not brilliant if injections are really not your thing (don’t watch!) It is just two- and three-quarter minutes in length. Andrew and James continue their merry dance across the screen. (To be fair it has all been relaxing so far, apart from the odd extraneous noise in videos which we can afford to dismiss from the playlist, given the resource of videos on this channel is just so large).

Otoscopy and Hearing Assessment | Ear Examination | Rinne’s & Weber’s test | OSCE Guide

I’ll make this the last video in this blog article but there are quite a few more for a future article or articles. It is slightly more than three-and-a-quarter minutes so none of the videos today will waylay you for very extortionate periods of time. It features Andrew and James again, the Morecombe and Wise of medical examinations. There is whispering, so I take it all back, medical examinations really do feature whispering, but perhaps not for the entire length of the examination.

There are a few disturbing ear related images, but as you will be listening rather than watching, you should be well placed.

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 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.

Until next time.

Picture DeepAI.org

Sleeping With ASMR

For those who have stuck with this blog, well done and thank-you. You will be aware of the format that this blog has followed for over a year now and I thought that just for a treat we would have a change. Instead of focusing on inadvertent ASMR videos from YouTube as, by-and-large, I have done for a long time now, what if in between I take a look at a video from a professional ASMR artist and consider whether it is worthwhile.

The drive remains a mechanism for getting some sleep. The difference is that someone is deliberately setting out to be relaxing, so we should be disposed to have extremely high expectations.

Searching YouTube for ASMR material yields up a bewildering array of videos and quite a lot of them look unsuitable before I even give them a review.

However, this one:

ASMR Medical ROLE PLAY | Cranial Nerve Exam (personal attention for relaxation and sleep)

is by an artist who has been around for some time and who has her own entry in the online ASMR index.

This is one of many by Isabel on a medical theme and given this is just a diversion I am not going to explore the others here. This is just a taster.

Not unexpectedly, Isabel has a truckload of followers and enough videos to restock Netflix on a Friday evening.

This particular video is a little over thirty eight minutes in length and for me it’s a little on the breathy side. (But I imagine some ASMR fans rather like that).

There are also some jarring beeps at intervals which would not dispose me towards snooziness, I must confess.

I’m also not a fan of the scratchy noises. However, I imagine for some people they are the main appeal.

It has notes but given a lot of professional artists focus on the merchandising, I won’t repeat them here.

Comments are permitted and, boy, are there a lot of those. A quick review though indicates that they are predominantly positive which is unusual in comparison to the video comments we have become used to.

I’m always a little concerned by professional ASMR videos in that predominantly the artists featured are, shall we say, a little too attractive to be considered average. In such cases I am suspicious that fans are attending not because of the quality of the sound…

The sound quality (as we would expect) is sublime with no weird background noises, no loud equipment noises and it just shows the incredibly high bar that an inadvertent ASMR video is aiming for (and habitually misses).

In any case, as this is a diversion, I am currently not disposed to set up an Isabel playlist on the Procrastination Pen (unless there is call for such a thing).

I will instead add such videos to the Sweetie Jar playlist on the assumption that a subset of readers might use such material to fall asleep to (as opposed to the inadvertent ASMR videos which have been the focus of this blog to date).

So returning to the main theme.

Today we go back to a channel which has been an old favourite which is the University of Leicester

Regular readers will know that we have been here before and whilst the videos on this channel may not be quite the ASMR standard of Isabel it has consistently delivered some restful videos.

The video featured today is this one:

Respiratory Examination – Demonstration

Again it is a professional video and so as we expect it has some notes:

“257,959 views 14 Dec 2011

A second more detailed video can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…

This is a real-time demonstration illustrating technique and patient interaction involved in the Respiratory Examination.

The film was produced by practising clinicians to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts at the point when the clinician has finished taking the medical history and begins the clinical examination.

Presented by Dr Jonathan Bennett MD FRCP Consultant Respiratory Physician. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears.

More Clinical Examination materials can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…”

This leads us to suspect that there are more videos out there on a similar theme and so it is worth taking a while to try and identify them.

This one is a little over six minutes and so it barely has time to take a run up before it is all over.

There are comments and as usual a number of the comments are as helpful as a leg iron.

This though may help us identify the others in this series:

“@UniversityLeicester

12 years ago

There is a second video in which the Doctor does explain the procedure. All the videos in this series can be found in the Clinical Examinations Playlist on the University of Leicester Channel.”

The video starts without music, how delightful, but it does have the constant background accompaniment of air conditioning, sadly. The pace and tone are both ideal, there is an absence of offensive noises and even some light humour. What is not to like.

The “patient” is Mr Jackson, the medical professional is introduced only in the notes Dr Jonathan Bennett MD FRCP Consultant Respiratory Physician.

This is a great Procrastination Pen playlist candidate.

The Clinical Examinations playlist mentioned in those comments appears to be this one:

Looking at that playlist, there would appear to be only one other video which features the same “patient” and the same medical professional, and it would be this one:

Respiratory Examination – Explanation

This one is hardly enormous as it is only just over ten minutes in length.

There are, as expected, notes “482,017 views 28 May 2012

This is a detailed explanation of the Respiratory Examination illustrating technique and patient interaction. The film was produced by practising clinicians to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts at the point when the clinician has finished taking the medical history and begins the clinical examination. Presented by Dr Jonathan Bennett MD FRCP Consultant Respiratory Physician. Produced and Directed by Dr Irene Peat FRCR FRCP, Dr Nicholas Port MBChB BSc and Jon Shears. More Clinical Examination materials can be found at; http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/msce…”

There is no music to start and, again, the presentation is calm and quiet. I also love how polite everyone is in this video.

Some of the explanations are a little on the off-putting side. (I’m not sure that discussions of sputum pots are that restful).

By and large though, this one is as delightful as the last one.

The University of Leicester 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.

Until next time.

Photo by Akshat Vats on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

I am still surprised that it is feasible to keep on writing a weekly blog on one specific subject and, thus far, to have not run out of material to base it on.

In fact, I am getting to the stage now where the overall playlist is getting so large that I will shortly have to make decisions about starting all over again.

It is already so large that playing it will take quite a bit longer than any average person would be resting for.

That was not the intention when commencing.

I also notice that I have been on the subject of medical examination videos for well over a year now, and whilst there have been no complaints, I have not appeared in the years top ten most interesting bloggers either.

I think there will need to be some changes, but for the moment, let’s not fix something that is not broken.

Today we are once again in the environs of videos created by students to satisfy some sort of course requirement. I am entirely thankful that colleges and universities keep demanding this of their students, and that the students then forget to take the videos down again long after their course has concluded.

Today’s follow the head-to-toe format that we have seen again-and-again on this blog but is none the worse for that.

PART TWO HEAD TO TOE

At a little over eight and a half minutes it isn’t going to hang around for long. It starts without startup music which is a rare and welcome situation. There is air conditioning noise and it is actually pretty loud, if not ultimately that distracting. The medical professional has a nice quiet voice; however, the presentation at least initially is a little on the fast side. Perhaps as a consequence of in front of camera nerves. The format is landscape which is rather welcome for one of these but, as I often comment, makes no difference at all if you are using the video to get to sleep.

The location appears to be domestic, in fact a bedroom, with a chest of drawers. One of the items that are probably not regularly found in a medical establishment.

The identity of the participants is not given and there is no clue as to the location of the institute for which the video was made. There are no notes and we can see it was posted 05/04/2023 (April) so it is conceivable that the course it is for is still running.

There are few comments ranging from the unhelpful to the ASMR fan. ASMR fans as is usual having tracked this one down way before I ever have.

Part way through we discover that the “patient” is called Amber (that may not be the spelling). We also find out that the instruction heel-to-toe is not necessarily as descriptive an instruction as it needs to be.

The channel is Kristin Colton and despite only having two videos it has one hundred and sixty-four subscribers which does not seem to be at all bad for that small number of videos.

The remaining video is a little more substantial at fifteen minutes and looking at it I can see that I have reviewed them in the reverse order.

PART ONE HEAD TO TOE

It starts with a yapping dog which is a bit off-putting. We now find that the “patient” is Amber Colton and so, in all likelihood, sister. The start is similar in other respects to the previous video – air conditioning providing the background, the voice is great but the presentation a little fast.

No startup music.

Like before it settles down and is quite calm. This time there are no helpful comments, but I think we can be certain if an ASMR fan found part two in this set, they absolutely certainly have found part one.

The presentation (if a little fast) is quite methodical. I tried the playback speed adjustment, it stands up well at 0.75, perhaps a little less so at 0.5, but you may find that it is worth a try as well. For me a little slower play speed certainly helped things.

There are some sounds of a child and people talking in an adjacent room. This is fairly normal for student videos as we have found before.

Kristin appears to have no other YouTube presence (another channel for example) so I’m afraid that’s it for Kristin and indeed for today’s blog post. Should give you time to catch your favourite television programme.

Definitions:

TMJ Temporomandibular joint

Gray309-en Gray310

TMD a soreness in the Jaw that usually clears up on its own.

The Kristin Colton 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.

Until next time.

Photo by Shona Macrae

Sleeping With ASMR

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)

“26 Feb 2018 Clinical Examination (OSCE) Guides

We’ve just released a collection of 500+ OSCE Stations! 🙌 https://geekymedics.com/osce-stations/ See the written guide alongside the video here https://geekymedics.com/respiratory-e…

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.

Special thanks to http://www.easyauscultation.com and Andy Howes for providing some of the respiratory sounds.

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.

The channel (as you suspected, I bet) is:

Geeky Medics https://www.youtube.com/@geekymedics.

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.

Respiratory Examination – OSCE Guide (Old Version)

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.

Respiratory Examination – OSCE Guide (Old Version)

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.

Until next time.

Photo by Juan Gomez on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

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.

Visit us:

Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.ed…

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Diagnoses covered in this video:

Lateral Ankle Sprain

Talar Dome Osteochondral Defect

5th Metatarsal Fracture

Achilles Tendinopathy

Interdigital (Morton’s) Neuroma

Stress Fracture of 2nd Metatarsal

Plantar Fasciitis

Hallux Valgus (Bunion)”

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.

Until next time.

Photo by Laura Matthews on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

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.

Until next time.

Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

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.

Until next time.

Photo by Jennifer Uppendahl on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

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 class is 7116 Advanced Nursing Assessment.

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.

Until next time.

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

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

Stanford Medicine 25: Abdominal Exam

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.

Please subscribe, like and visit our websites:

Main Website: http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.edu/

Blog: http://stanford25blog.stanford.edu/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanfordMedi…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanfordMed25

Google+: http://goo.gl/UBM7SP”

It is an advantage of professionally produced videos that they tend to have notes and, in a number of cases, the notes are even helpful.

Again, we have startup and tail end music, which I’d prefer wasn’t there, but isn’t hugely intrusive.

The last video in this playlist is this one:

Diagnosis Anterior Cutaneous Nerve Entrapment Syndrome (ACNES) with Carnett’s Sign – Abdominal Pain

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.

Until next time.

Photo by Luiza Sayfullina on Unsplash