I've been an EMT in a VERY rural area for about a year and a half. I LOVE it. We are lucky in that we have a great hospital with docs from large trauma centers from all over the US and Iraq. We are a volunteer station, (but do get paid for ea run ). My husband and I are both EMTs with no regrets except...we just wish we would have known what we wanted to be when we grew up 30 years ago. I enjoy helping people, I enjoy the adrenaline when the pager goes off. I don't have a second job but need one. The EMT b course was good but our station made the mistake of having a "ridealong" program. So when it was time to take the NREMT test, I had a difficult time. The test goes by the book only, not necessarily what was being done on scene. We have a small service, only two ambulances and 18 members in our station. But we do have excellent equipment, If we need something, we get it. As far as having productive down time, read, read, read. Know your equipment. Know your vitals. Encourage your department to have lots of training and scenarios.
Like I stated before, we are very remote. Some calls take over an hour to get on scene and then another hour and a half to get to the hospital so we call in life flight if in doubt. We also have very severe weather to deal with 6 or 7 months out of the year. Also, the people you work with make a big difference too. Some you run with and the calls go perfect, others, well............no so much.
So good luck. I'm sure you will enjoy it very much.