Patient Care Theory 3

Patient Care Theory 3 is a feed of classroom recordings from the Georgian College PCP paramedic program, with Rob Theriault lecturing. The students are in the room, and you can hear it. They laugh, break in with questions, and get teased when they turn up giddy after a flu shot. Each recording starts by naming its unit and part, so the course structure stays clear. The titles cover a wide range: 'PCT3: Hypoglycemia', 'PCT3: CPAP for acute pulmonary edema', 'PCT3: NTG for APE', 'PCT3: PCP pain management', 'PCT3: Aeromedical Physiology' and 'PCT3: CBRN'. The clinical sessions are built around medical directives. Theriault takes each one line by line, covering indications, contraindications, age and weight cutoffs, doses and repeat intervals. Then he argues with it. He asks why hypoglycemia is listed among the conditions for dextrose and glucagon rather than the indications. He says a listed contraindication for acetaminophen in ischemic chest pain is not a true contraindication, because nitro is what that patient gets. He would add a drug to the bag and run it as a drip if the base hospital had no objection, instead of pushing it through the port as the rules require. That running commentary is the most useful part: the rule and the reasoning around it come together. Practical advice fills in what the directives leave out. On CPAP, he notes that no one has ever calmed down by being told to calm down. He recommends explaining what the mask will do and then letting a struggling patient focus on breathing instead of pressing them for a long history. On hypoglycemia, he describes watching a treated patient eat half a sandwich and rechecking their blood sugar before leaving them at home with another responsible adult. The pain management session recalls a time when indications were so narrow that base hospitals found pain was going untreated. The nitroglycerin lecture explains why phosphodiesterase inhibitors and nitrates are a dangerous mix, including blood pressure drops that do not respond to fluids or drugs. The special-topics units reach further. Aeromedical physiology starts with Dalton's law and moves through the stages of hypoxia. CBRN turns to biological agents such as anthrax, including spores found in animal hides. Theriault is open about his limits there, calling his knowledge of biological weapons purely theoretical and hazmat work not his cup of tea. Stories keep the pace loose, like staying away from the calves on a vet tech program tour, or a first air medical conference in Boston that ended with him waking up in some hedges. What comes through is a teacher who knows the protocol well enough to say exactly where it could be better.