“If you can understand where someone is coming from, it makes you more aware and understanding as a doctor.”
Growing up in rural Illinois with two teachers for parents and a doctor for a grandpa, Dr. Valerie Hay chose to be a pediatrician because it melded her passion for kids, teaching and medicine.
“The biggest thing that my grandpa taught me was that everybody should be treated as a person,” Dr. Hay said explaining her patient care philosophy. “Plus, I have loved kids ever since I was younger.”
Ultimately, it was in third grade when her mother was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that Dr. Hay learned how it felt to be on the other side of the table.
“You have to tell people the truth,” Dr. Hay said. “I have sat on that end of the table before receiving the bad news. In that moment, I just wanted the truth.”
Dr. Hay carried these life lessons with her to Southern Illinois University where she received her medical degree and completed her residency.
When Dr. Hay became a parent, she began to fully understand what it felt like to worry about a sick child or wait in the doctor’s office for an appointment.
These life lessons have shaped the care she gives to her patients every day.
Since becoming a pediatrician, Dr. Hay has practiced medicine in Texas and Illinois beforemoving to Wisconsin in 2011.
She and her husband live in Plover with her son. Dr. Hay loves watching hockey and supporting her Blackhawks, but also enjoys reading novels and watching movies.
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