Doing those IFTs are great (if generally boring otherwise) for lots of learning. I'm not saying you have to like them, or even love them. You will see stable patients that are often quite sick, on multiple meds, are allergic to darned near everything, and you'll see them over and over and over again so that you'll start correlating your physical findings (assessment) with the patient's history and meds. You can use that time to practice getting vital signs done in a moving vehicle. You can use that time to practice giving report to whomever is receiving the patient from you. You can use that time to go through most of the motions of an emergency call. You can use that time to develop your skills in talking with (not "to" or "at") patients. You can use that time to develop asking your patient lots of questions and learn pertinent follow-up questions. That's part of doing assessments. Yeah, doing those renal runs is boring, but it very well could be you that notices something a bit "off" about your patient from what you normally see with that patient. Yes, you will often see the same patients over and over again. You'll learn what's normal for them. You'll also naturally pick up your speed in doing things, so that when you get bumped up or you find a 911 job, you won't be hassled to speed up, you'll already be at speed. You will already have your skills down solid.
Back when I was an FTO, I used to train my people to treat those calls as if they were 911/emergency calls. Why? It's because that way they do things the same way, every time, and at an appropriate speed. Once they're able to easily do things at 911 speed, slowing down is easier... but getting someone used to going slow to speed up is MUCH more difficult. I'm not saying that they sacrificed accuracy, just that they started doing things accurately and sped up from there.
