yea it depends.
new attending who wants to take call - lets say you're in a small city. up at 5 am or 6 (depends on you), grand rounds at 630, only on mondays, round on any inpatients as necessary....OR for 7am or clinic for. 8 am....Do that until 4/5pm. If post-call, may have case left over to do in evening, stay and do that home by 7/8? If on call...thats where all the fun is, you get non stop outside calls, in house er calls, plus cases that need to be done...you get called and woken up throughout the night into the next morning. this is at a level I center in a small city. Residents/hospitalists would cover the ward, but all consult calls come through you.
If not on call, you can be home by 5-6pm. If you're senior, with an established practice and don't feel it necessary to take er call, then your day would be 7am-5pm, you'd likely only have to take. call for your elective patients, which is less busy.
Plus add evening coverage for sports teams etc so you can build your practice.
community call should be lighter, still tiring though, you'd still operate into the evening, usually up until 11pm, may get called at night from the er, you can likely see whatever consult it is at 6am, so no need to come in; still not a restful night. At community places, the floor may be nice enough not to page you unless absolutely necessary.
Basically, call is what is heavy. it pays and helps get your practice established. Some people pay a PA to take call, others don't take call...but problem with that is, you' wont like your income without call, it'll be hard to build a practice...and if you're with a group, as many are these days, a young person coming in and not taking call won't fly.
