Nursing – The Procrastination Pen

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently I had occasion to browse YouTube using a smart TV. The app for YouTube browsing turns out to be a cut down of the version available via a web browser. For a start the shuffle function does not exist, the ability to skip adverts does not crop up and it took some searching to find the Procrastination Pen channel at all.

However, I am pleased to report that despite all that, the playlist still stands up pretty well even when forced to play each video in order. Some of those early videos have become like old friends now.

It also gave me the chance to identify the odd one that is ripe for weeding and push it over into the archive list – by this mechanism does the main Procrastination Pen playlist keep being refined and improved.

Today’s video is this one:

Head-to-Toe Assessment NR 304

Comments are permitted and we can see that ASMR fans have already been here and done that. NR304 turns out to be a nursing exam. The online references to it appear to come from Chamberlain University College of Nursing but that is not to say it is the only university to offer it.

The video is twelve and three quarter minutes long so a good average length for a medical examination video. And this seems to be again another video produced by students as part of their course. (we have a great deal of experience of this now and the results can be somewhat variable).

There is some background noise. There are conversations happening nearby both are quite distracting.

The medical professional is “Nadia”. She has a great voice which is somewhat overshadowed by the other conversations just off camera.

The “patient” is Jackie Santiago (almost certainly misspelled) with DoB 6/9/97. However, thereby is a trap for the unwary, this is the US dating system so almost certainly 09/06/1997, so June therefore.

Each of the participants has a tunic with a crest on it which is just a little too fuzzy for me to make out the name of the institution.

However, the Chamberlain University College of Nursing has a very similar logo.

So it could be that this is the location.

Chamberlain appears to be in Addison Illinois and unsurprisingly it has its own YouTube channel.

This is filled with the kind of promotional videos we have come to expect from such channels.

The channel is Nadia Hussain. This has just one video posted there years ago at the time I am looking at it, yet despite this there are four hundred and two subscribers. This is quite amazing and possibly speaks to the ASMR-y nature of this video.

I would completely be in accordance with that if the extraneous noises were not punctuating this video. It is also a shame, given the nature of her voice, that Nadia did not post any further videos.

In the brief intervals where no conversations from elsewhere are overheard this is a very good video. It even lacks oppressive air conditioning noises (which is very rare as we know).

Sadly, there is no more from Nadia, she does not seem to have any other channel, so presumably she went on to make good her career and never looked back. Good luck Nadia, but very sad for us.

So until next time then.

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 yongzheng xu on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

I am continually reminded that there is nothing new under the sun. I spend so much time on YouTube now that I sometimes inadvertently happen upon something which I was not really searching for. Recently I discovered that the Procrastination Pen is not the only channel trying to put together a playlist connected with sleep. (On reflection I suspect that there are many of these).

I found that the channel Zbizzle has a playlist just entitled “Sleep”. At the time of looking, it has twenty-eight videos and four thousand two hundred and thirty views so none too shabby. I am listing it because you may be interested in checking it out.

The videos seem to be compiled from professional ASMR channels and so quite different to the approach that I have been taking. It might form an interesting contrast to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Sadly, Zbizzle has not included any details about themselves in their channel (other than that they joined in 2012 – so somewhat before the Procrastination Pen).

I have not reviewed the sleep playlist myself; I’ve been a bit busy reviewing my own list. I can’t either recommend or criticise, I simply offer it up in case you haven’t found it yourself and you fancy giving it a try.

Back to the Procrastination Pen and the video being appraised today, this being:

Hannah’s Head to Toe assessment

At just less than forty-two minutes this one is a real thoroughgoing test. Recently we have been used to videos quite a bit shorter than that.

The title immediately strikes me as possibly being to do with a student assessment video which we have seen a number of in the past.

The focus looks a bit off, the distance of the subjects as if they are at the end of a long tunnel, both participants reasonably young in appearance.

The patient is introduced as “Miss Strickland” but the channel is “David Strickland” – there is no indication as to how that is the case. A possible gender change individual perhaps?

The background noise is not too oppressive thankfully, there is no introductory music for which may the Lord make us truly thankful. The medical professional does not introduce herself but jumping ahead the second video on this channel may iron that one out – of which more later.

There are no notes associated with the video which does indicate a non-professional video as we have noted. Professional videos tend to have notes associated with them.

There are comments, and as usual the comments are unhelpful. (I’ve formed the view that denying comments is probably a wise move with videos on YouTube).

There are no ASMR-related comments which may mean this is a find or it is a terrible video.

The sound is somewhat muted, which we have heard before and might be connected with the quality of microphone employed.

The delivery is as we have grown used to; the individual is assessed and so has to rattle off a certain amount of terminology in order to get a grade. (I surmise this in that most of the videos produced apparently as part of a course all seem to progress in the same way).

Videos of this type always seem to involve the “medical professional” consulting with some kind of mental checklist in a fairly rigid manner, up to the laughable “privacy” provision sections, where the poor student draws an invisible (i.e. non-existent) curtain.

The delivery is slightly loud and a little hesitant. It is obvious that the “medical professional“ keeps forgetting where they are supposed to be in the examination.

Regular readers will now be thoroughly familiar with cranial nerve tests now of course including some that are delivered by professionals.

The medical professional keeps pausing delivery, presumably in an effort to remember exactly what it is that is supposed to come next. Towards the end she actively consults her notes. But of course, for the purpose which we wish to put this to, which is to lie there and to listen, this need not be too distracting.

I love the way that she pronounces “Lazy eye”, a very different way to enunciate those two words to what I am used to.

The channel is David Strickland, perhaps a relative of Hannah Strickland who we saw as the patient in that first video.

The second video features the same participants but in a reversal of the roles:

Danielle’s Head to Toe Assessment

The key is that the medical professional of the former video was Danielle and in this one Danielle is actually the patient. There remain no clues as to where this actual medical establishment is.

The comments remain unhelpful and there are still no notes. The focus remains on the fuzzy side and the background noise is still muted. This one comes in at a little under thirty-eight and a half minutes.

Hannah starts off a little loud. The introductions are somewhat brief and definitely not enough to give much information about course, institution, more details of the participants and other information that I often use to determine that the video is a legitimate one and not from an ASMR professional. (From the appearance of it, I somewhat doubt it is the latter).

Given the paucity of the number of videos and the complete absence of playlists, two hundred and twenty-two subscribers is a really good result. One certainly gets the idea that the video was never intended to be out there in the greater public and, given both videos are both posted in 2014, any related course is long gone by now.

Part way through Hannah’s voice is completely masked by a background noise sounding like the microphone has been placed in a wind tunnel. Almost as if someone was hoovering it with a 1950s vacuum which had not received regular maintenance in the last seventy years. That is really quite distracting.

As before, the presentation is hesitant with some wrong steps being taken and some parts forgotten and returned to later.

There are obvious pauses as elements are recalled. Like the first video of this article in fact.

We discover that Danielle was born April 6^th 1994 but the location is given merely as “nursing lab” which doesn’t help much in tracking down the institution – oh for an identifying badge or similar.

The David Strickland 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 experience to log on, this interrupts the listening 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 Dollar Gill on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

If you’ve been reading the Procrastination Pen for a while you will have come across the theory that people have a much more gentle and quiet approach to examinations when dealing with small people.

What could be better to test if this is consistent or just an occasional occurrence than to occasionally feature an examination with a small person and to observe whether such videos are better in terms of volume and method.

Universities have so far been pretty good for videos but they are also often a huge source of self-promotional material involving MGM style soundtracks and Saachi and Saachi motivational messages. There is, therefore, a mass of material to look at and quite a lot of it is unsuitable for us.

The University of Leicester though, in common with Warwick University, who we saw before, has a number of teaching videos and some of those are very good. Today’s video is sadly very brief at just shy of five minutes in duration.

Paediatric Clinical Examinations – The Abdomen

It includes comments and as expected a number of the comments are not helpful. Reading between the lines though, I think ASMR fans are here well before I am. This is something that we have come to expect now.

It is a professional video and so of course it has notes associated with it:

“30 Jul 2014

This is a real-time demonstration illustrating the technique and parent and child interaction involved in the examination of the abdominal system of a child.

The film was produced by a paediatrician to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts where the history has been taken, and the clinical examination is about to commence.

Written and presented by Dr Elaine Carter, Emeritus Consultant Paediatrician, MA, MB ChB, MRCP, FRCPCH, MMedSci.

This film was produced by External Relations, University of Leicester.

Filmed & Edited by Carl Vivian

Written & Produced by Elaine Carter”

There is no – I mean zero – music at the start of the video – Warwick take note. This is such a welcome difference.

We are introduced to mum Sophie and her son Alex, who, it has to be said, looks suitably anxious. There is limited background noise; no obvious air conditioning noises for example.

The presentation is lovely and gentle. So far, the theory about small people is vindicated yet again.

I never expected a child to be this calm when having his abdomen probed in such a deep manner. Perhaps the presentation is just a little loud but that is a minor criticism and is only possible because other aspects of the video are so right.

Interestingly, I found the video is now in the Internet Archive the first time I have ever found that to be the case.

The video is posted eight years ago to this channel: University of Leicester.

This channel is simply huge, 1.3K videos at the date I am looking at it. Eighty-seven playlists and few of these are anything that we could use.

However searching the Internet Archive, discovered earlier, we find that Elaine is also involved in another video of a similar type.

This video, as luck would have it, is also present on YouTube:

Paediatric Clinical Examinations – The Respiratory System

This one seems to have been filmed before the previous one in that this is the first time we are introduced to Alex.

Again, there are notes: “30 Jul 2014

This is a real-time demonstration illustrating the technique and parent and child interaction involved in the examination of the respiratory system of a child.

The film was produced by a paediatrician to aid the teaching of clinical examination skills. It starts where the history has been taken, and the clinical examination is about to commence.

Written and presented by Dr Elaine Carter, Emeritus Consultant Paediatrician, MA, MB ChB, MRCP, FRCPCH, MMedSci.

This film was produced by External Relations, University of Leicester.

Filmed & Edited by Carl Vivian

Written & produced by Elaine Carter”

As before there is no startup music. If it wasn’t the fact that there would be so little material to work with, I would only select videos that lacked startup music (and tail end music as well for that).

We are also introduced to Ellie, Alex’s sister, Alex looks suitably bored, possibly because his sister is the focus of attention in this video.

It is another brief one at just less than six- and three-quarter minutes.

The presentation style here, if anything, is quieter than with the previous video. Ellie seems calm, even happy at intervals.

The comments are variable as always but again reading between the lines this is also already known to the ASMR community.

That’s it for this time.

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 Mikhail Tyrsyna on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

I think I can conclude, after quite a few ASMR articles, that nursing is an absolute gift to the ASMR community. There are nursing students who post assessment videos. There are various nursing disciplines that require additional training. Much of that training apparently needs videos. Then there are the tuition videos designed to help nurses improve their expertise and log continuing professional development hours.

With nursing, GPs, and physicians we have videos which are commonly dedicated to medical examination material and this can be quite restful.

In my one blog post per week, I have hardly scraped the surface of everything that seems to be out there in this area. I may, one day, happen upon an even more productive area (paediatrics currently is a little explored area for example). But for the moment thank God for all the nurses out there and the efforts that they put in.

Today’s is from a channel dedicated to nursing it is this:

01.03 The 5 Minute Assessment Physical assessment

Despite the claims of its title the video is nearly six minutes in length.

There are no notes, which is unusual for a professionally produced video. Comments are permitted. Mostly these are unhelpful, but they do lead me to suspect that a number of people listening to this video are ASMR fans.

Oh no introductory music. Thankfully though, it is brief and unsurprisingly, for a video that declares it is all going to happen in five minutes, the pace sets off pretty rapidly and perhaps not as quietly as I would like.

The patient self-identifies as, I think, “Tammy Hawes” but that is probably misspelled. Once the examination begins things start to quieten down, but the pace certainly does not slow any.

The channel is “Nursing made easy” this has one hundred and seventy-two videos at the time I am looking at it and eight hundred and ninety-nine subscribers. That is rather a lot of videos/subscribers.

There are six playlists. One of these has seventy-four videos in it.

However examining the videos in overview, it appears that the titles denote a series. Posted one year ago are four videos with titles ranging from 01.02 to 01.05.

A quick scan of the remainder reveals that few if any will be suitable for our purposes.

The first is this one:

01.02 Barriers to Health Assessment

At just less than eight and a half minutes, the title doesn’t obviously sound like one for us. There are, again, no notes but this time no comments either. There is introductory music again. Then that frenetic pace of presentation (but this time in roadrunner proportions).

I imagine people actually play this one on half speed if they are trying to study it properly.

This really isn’t for the Procrastination Pen playlist.

01.03 is where we came in of course.

01.04 Adult Vital Signs

This is just less than five and a half minutes so another short one. Again, there are no notes and, perhaps thankfully, no comments either. That, accursed, introductory music of course. But after that start the pace is somewhat slower than with the previous two videos. It still isn’t what you would call slow though.

In this one neither patient nor the nurse doing the examination actually get to say anything, it is all about the narrator.

I think the videos in this particular blog article are probably all borderline restful. They are just good enough for the Procrastination Pen playlist but potentially liable to weeding on subsequent review.

The last video in this particular set is this one:

01.05 Pediatric Vital Signs

This is a bit of a segue in fact; the numbering system obviously linking more to the originating course than to the people delivering the examination, the patient, or even the specific subject area.

This one is just less than six and a quarter minutes long. As before there are no notes and no comments. As before the annoying start up music. As before the pace is pretty fast.

This is more a course-delivery video than a medical-examination video. It is not especially restful (although I’m sure if you are on the specific course, it is very informative).

This is not really for the Procrastination Pen playlist

The Nursing made easy 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 Girl with red hat on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

I’ve noticed when waking from a playlist-accompanied sleep that YouTube is not always respecting the use of shuffle and repeat functions. Recently I can wake up to some completely unknown (and non-ASMR related) video, usually accompanied by loud adverts.

I’m not certain what is causing this because the issue kicks in whilst I have been asleep. However, I am embarking on a weeding of the main playlist to try to ensure it contains only quality videos now. Some do not seem to have stood the test of time. I will keep monitoring in the hope that this resolves the issue. Perhaps a problematic video is the cause of the problem.

If anyone has seen this before (and better still resolved it), do please get in touch.

Today’s video is this one:

Lung Examination – Jessica Nishikawa

At just less than fourteen minutes not far off the normal length for videos we have seen on the way to creating the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Jessica Nishikawa initially starts a bit loud (well the video is designed as an educational vehicle) but has a good voice for our purposes. I think the patient might be called Makata (probably nothing like that spelling). There is a mountain in Hawaii called Makana so I would guess that is a much more likely name. I’ll stick with that as the spelling from this point onwards.

There is of course the background air conditioning noise that we are used to by now but it is not as oppressive as some we have heard.

Some of the comments are not study-related but there are no obvious comments from ASMR aficionados. Given how diligent such people are in seeking out material it is unlikely this is a brand new find, however.

The channel is Jessica Nishikawa, there are twenty-six videos on the channel which is a few too many to cover in any one blog post.

The old trick of narrowing down the videos to cover by choosing any available playlist is not going to work. There is only one playlist which does not appear to be on the same subject. You can see what I mean:

A quick visual review of the available videos though reveals that only a subset of them feature Makana as the “patient”. This seems an adequate way to focus down the videos for this review.

The next video to feature Makana is this one:

JVP Exam – Jessica Nishikawa

Like the previous one posted seven years ago and at not much over two minutes is quite a brief one. As a professional video of course, it includes notes: “29 Oct 2015

Jessica Nishikawa demonstrates the JVP examination.

Subscribe at / jessicanishikawa

Twitter @JessNishi”

This is consistent with the last one and also deserves a place in the Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

The next video featuring Makana as the “patient” is this one:

Heart Exam – Jessica Nishikawa

A little halting to start, but it soon settles down. Again, there are several non-medical comments. Any video poster on YouTube must have to get used to such comments (or deny comments altogether, which on reflection, seems rather sensible).

The notes are similar for all the videos so I won’t document them for this one. This video is five minutes long, which isn’t exactly huge. It remains consistent with the last one. In fact, like all professionally-produced videos we have seen, if you like one of them it is quite a strong indication that you are going to like the remainder.

And that’s it for videos featuring Makana. However, we have now proven that the channel is rather a good source of relaxing videos and so I have every belief we will be back here again.

The Jessica Nishikawa 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 listening 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

I realise that for people who have not been following (the ASMR theme on) this blog since the beginning might find this to be nonsense. For such people, a bit of background. With each blog article I review a video (mostly videos located on YouTube) for its ability to either produce ASMR symptoms or to be restful enough to aid in sleep. At the end of which the video either gets added to The Procrastination Pen playlist or it does not. The assumption is that ASMR aficionados will just go straight to the playlist and listen, but some of you may like to read the material before doing that.

For an idea of where this all began take a look at the initial ASMR blog post which will give you an idea.

I think we are on more solid ground today as this one is back firmly in the medical exam area.

The channel is Ryann McCarty and sadly for us is not going to be a rich resource of ASMR material. In fact, there is one playlist of music videos entitled Rye and the video that we are featuring today entitled:

Ryann McCarty Student Nurse health assessment performance

So this is all you get today I’m afraid – look at it as an appetiser – keeping you keen to see yet more. (Yes, that didn’t sound that accurate to me either). Posted in 2017 and nothing posted on this channel subsequently. (The music playlist was last updated in 2020). Hopefully Ryann is out there doing more important things with her life. The sleeve badge seems to be for Suny Downstate College of Nursing, only sometime subsequently they’ve had a rebrand.

Ryann announces herself at the beginning so we’re pretty certain this is the Ryann we’re talking about. Initially her voice is a bit loud but once the examination starts it begins to settle down (although I don’t think she will ever be a Hollie Berry).

At intervals, (despite the constant air conditioning sounds in the background) I found myself quite calmed by it.

At one stage the person behind the camera starts laughing which is a little disconcerting. (It is easy to forget that there will always be a third person in each of these one-to-one encounters due to the presence of the camera).

I also liked the comment about cold hands – one feature of using alcohol-based hand sanitiser is that your hands get properly freezing – although in other videos I have featured in the past the medical professional does warn the patient about the incoming iceberg.

The notes state “Week 6 lab- Final health assessment performance”. I’m not sure how the education process works but if Ryann achieved this level of proficiency after merely 6 weeks of education then I am impressed.

In all quite a charming short piece at twenty minutes and fourteen seconds. Worthy of adding to the Procrastination Pen playlist I think.

The overall playlist of all videos featured so far in this blog is here:

If you liked this blog item why not subscribe.

Photo by Hana Oliver on Unsplash