GREENFIELD — Jeffrey Hayer, at age 8 or 9, watched a program on TV alongside his father, an attorney. Part of what he saw showed doctors helping disabled children.
Hayer turned to his father and said that if he didn’t mind, he wanted to be a bone doctor, which is exactly what he became.
Hayer has been practicing medicine for four decades but still can quickly recall his dreams while speaking with two students shadowing him for the day.
“I’m not saying it’s the greatest thing in the world for being a doctor, but at the same right it is a calling,” Hayer, a Greenfield native, said.
The shadowing program was a part of “Doctor for a Day,” sponsored by the Massachusetts Medical Society’s local chapter. Tuesday, shadowing took place at Hayer’s practice on Riddell Street as well as Baystate Franklin Medical Center. Hayer said he’s been participating with the program for roughly the past 20 years.
“You’re dealing with young minds and their eyes are wide open and you’re dealing with tremendous dreams,” Hayer said. “I try to give them a dose of reality.”
That included letting the two students into the rooms with patients he was seeing, provided the patients were OK with that. After several visits, Hayer brought the students into his office for a debriefing. He asked them what they thought was the most complicated aspect of what they had seen and then explained to them about that.
“It really solidified my idea that, yes, I really want to be in the medical field,” Mohawk Trail Regional School student Brianne Cousineau, 18, said after shadowing Hayer part of the day. “It’s different than just being a patient and seeing what happens.”
Brianne said her dreams to become a doctor began about two years ago when a family member got sick and she was in the hospital a lot with them.
Greenfield High School student Victor Ivancev, 15, has wanted to become a doctor for a number of years. Both of his parents work in the field.
“I always like their professions and I aspire to be like them,” Victor said, who was also shadowing Hayer. He said he wants to be a cardiologist and shadowing “really opened my eyes to what the medical field is and can be.”
Hayer said working as a doctor can be challenging, though, because there’s no regular schedule. He called it a “juggling act” and can be stressful on your family.
“I’m not saying it’s the greatest thing in the world for being a doctor, but at the same rate, it’s a calling,” he said. “You can make a lot more money on Wall Street.”
Hayer, instead, tried to instill an appreciation not only in being a doctor, but also in how to best conquer that juggling act. He told Brianne and Victor about his beekeeping and other hobbies that help him to not get bogged down in his career.
“The big message I told them is if you go into this profession, maintain your humility, because you’ll get humbled on the daily basis.”
Huddled up, like a team of doctors in discussion, Hayer told the two students one of his most important lessons that had little to do with bones, but everything to do with people. He said to always remember people’s names, saying it’s the only thing you can’t take away from a person. Take time to say hello to people and hear what they have to say, he said, because that will be invaluable.