In respiratory therapy school I was never taught about the various mathematical models of pressure-control ventilation (PC-CMV) and we probably only had a hour lecture on respiratory time constants. In clinical rotations PC-CMV was seldom used and had a bad reputation only being used on the sickest patients. This was due to the practice of utilizing inverse-ratio ventilation in treating patients with ARDS and serve hypoxia, which led to the administration of neuro-muscular blocking agents and poor outcomes.
Even today many practitioners are unfamiliar with the most versatile mode of ventilation (PC-CMV) and do not know how to optimize the settings. If one wants to have a understanding of the advance modes of ventilation, PC-CMV is were to start.