So, I'm just a premed, but from what I've gathered from my time on this site:
Most attending physicians who do primary care clinic work regular business hours ( about 9-5 or 8-4 four or five weekdays a week) with a break for lunch in the middle.
Regarding call, the doctors usually take turns having phone call from home. There is usually an answering service that will forward calls to a physician's pager if the patient calls the office phone number with a problem that can't wait until morning. The doctor calls the patient back, listens to their concern, and will use their clinical judgement in deciding whether the patient should go to the ER right now or can wait to be seen in clinic the next day.
I think the physical exams are on par with most outpatient specialties. That is, many if not most patients will need a problem-focused physical exam (e.g. patient having ear pain needs an ear, eyes, nose, throat exam; diabetics should have their feet looked at; lung sounds to evaluate for possible pneumonia; etc.) but for others it might just be talking during follow-ups (e.g. mental health visits).
As far as procedures go, things like joint injections, skin biopsies, stitches, and implantable birth control (e.g. Nexplanon, IUDs, etc.) are common. I am sure there are more I am not thinking of right now.
Charting is a huge part of the job. Every patient needs a note in the system for every visit. Many places also have a way for patients to message their medical professionals through the medical record (e.g. MyChart messages). Every phone call needing medical advice you take care of for a patient needs to be recorded in the medical record. Labs come back that you need to review and either you contact the patient (less common) or you ask the triage nurse to do it (more common).
Family medicine and internal medicine are the two biggest specialties and have the most residency programs. Thus, there are residencies for those two everywhere. There are many in urban and rural areas. Inpatient rotations, especially ICU, are very busy with residents hitting or nearing the maximum allowable number of hours per week (80). Outpatient time isn't so bad. How programs organize inpatient vs outpatient time is variable and I don't know much about it.
Broadly, inpatient time involves rounding (going around seeing all of the patients on your caseload); admissions (getting people started with treatment when they are admitted to the hospital from the ER); answering pages from the nurses; and talking to families/holding family meetings about their sick loved one; and charting. Outpatient clinic in residency = You see the patient by yourself then present the patient's history, physical exam, and your assessment and plan to the attending physician who will critique that plan and then quickly go see the patient themselves.
Does that answer your questions? Is there anything else we can help with?
