Good to know. Thanks.
I enjoy the mix so I guess I should cross trauma off my list.
Clinic is quite variable, and many things factor in.
If you are in private practice, the number of hospitals and locations may affect your clinic. If you are academic, you may have separate VA and university clinics, and you may have to sponsor the resident clinic. If you are early on in your career, you may have to do more clinic so you're more available and can generate an elective caseload (e.g. Friday afternoon clinic...a horrible thing that is often delegated to the junior partner to clean up messes before the weekend).
And, of course, the speed of individual surgeons can affect clinic. If you see patients fast, and you're in a specialty that doesn't have a lot of lengthy discussions, you may be able to survive on 2 half-days a week. However, if you're slower, and/or you're in a specialty with lengthy discussions (e.g. cancer surgery, bariatrics, plastics, etc) you may need 5 half-days a week. If your specialty has a lot of unpredictable emergencies that can require you to cancel clinic, e.g. OBGYN/Transplant/Trauma, the number can vary even more.
Also, when you are early on in your career, you'll have more no-shows and late arrivals....patients don't know you from Adam, so they don't bend over backwards to make your clinic. Once you're more established, clinic is more on your terms...patients will have to wait longer periods of time for an appointment, and you can scale down the number of clinics....the result is a much lower no-show rate and more timely patients.
For colorectal surgery, you need a minimum of 3 half days per week. Clinic will be necessary to see new consults (cancer, diverticulitis, anal pain, rectal bleeding, and many many more), do office procedures (proctos, anoscopy, banding, IRC, lumps/bumps, I and Ds, TEH excision, etc), follow ups, and elective screening colonoscopies (although this doesn't really pay anymore).
Some CR surgeons do 6 half-days per week. I know one female CR surgeon who does 8 half-days a week, in 3 hour increments, spread out over 2 locations.
We all loathe clinic as residents, and do everything in our power to avoid it. However, in hindsight, I think that clinic is essential to a balanced surgical education, and we should probably have more mandatory hours in the clinic. It will contribute much more to our skills as a practicing surgeon than countless hours on the hospital wards.