As many may say at the beginning of a NEW year, “out with the old and in with the new”… I would say “keep the good old and adopt the good new”! 🙂
Speaking of new, here’s some NEWS:
As of 12/21/2023, I received an email from the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine that I passed by Board Exam and now officially a Diplomate of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (DipACLM). Adopting more letters behind my name is one thing, but adding this new credential to my name shows my commitment to advancing in lifestyle medicine! I have been thinking about my educational journey and how far I had come to get to this stage in my life. When I first entered college in 2011 at the University of Florida, little did I know I would be wearing the hats and walking the shoes I’m in today. The shift in choosing my PA career path in 2013 happened shortly after my maternal grandfather’s first stroke. Admittedly, I was narrow-minded when I started college as a “pre-med” student on track to become an MD or DO one day. Two years into college, my world was shaken and the healthy, vibrant late-grandpa I once knew was bedridden in our small village in Southern Vietnam with little medical care. Coming home to him with my Mom and younger sister on an emergency flight was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life. I recognized how LITTLE I knew about the roles of so many other medical professionals besides the doctors and how poor my bedside skills were to take care of a bed-bound individual, my beloved grandpa, when I was 19 years old. It shifted my perspectives and opened new lens for me to change my life’s pursuits! I came back from Vietnam that summer, bewildered; not knowing what I exactly want to do with my life in “healthcare” anymore. I had changed my Major to Nutrition (from Biology) and started talking with many other pre-health students and shadowing many more healthcare professionals of all disciplines. I obtained my CNA license before the end of 2013 while staying a full-time student in my first semester of Junior year, pushing to redefine myself, my values, and what I could see in my future. As I started working as a Patient Care Assistant at Shands Rehab Hospital beginning of 2014, I became more exposed to other allied healthcare professionals, including Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Nurses, PAs, NPs, MDs, DOs, etc. And at the end of the day, I chose the path to become a Physician Assistant (now aka Physician Associate) because it enables me to have the medical training, like an MD or DO; yet, finish school sooner so I could go out and work in medicine clinically, and contribute to the workforce as a Team-player working closely with the doctors and other healthcare professionals in various discipline. I did not have to choose a Residency or Fellowship and I could change specialty at any time in my career as a PA if I choose to. It provides the flexibility and I was able to still pursue higher education after my PA-C Certification in 2017, which I didn’t wait too long. I started embarking right onto my 4-year Functional Medicine training through IFM starting at the end of 2017, leading to my IFMCP Board exam at the end of 2021. Shortly after, I discovered another phenomenal organization called the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, in which I became a member of in early 2022 and subsequently started my training and took the ACLM Board at the end of 2023!

Now, as we head into 2024, I, Nhi Ma Do, MPAS, PA-C, IFMCP, RYT-200, DipACLM, would like to keep the good old and adopt the good new. From my conventional training in PA school to my trainings in functional medicine and lifestyle medicine, I have had the pleasure and honor to recognize the real “good old” as well as the “good new”. Each of my certification processes were rigorous in their own ways, conventional or non-conventional, as they are all science-backed and evidence-based. Each has enhanced my skills in practice and my knowledge in the medical field. I’m opened-mind to the changes and shifts in research and sciences. The foundational agreement started back in the times of Hippocrates who once said “let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” Nutrition and lifestyle modifications are at the core of good medicine. We must not forget this “good old”. It may have manifested to be called all kinds of different labels or types of Medicines, but ALL comes back to the foundation. If you are reading this far, you may be very interested or already aware about the differences of Conventional vs. Functional vs. Lifestyle vs. Integrative vs. Oriental Medicine, and so on and so forth. I’m neither here to explain nor announce their differences, but I’m more here to acknowledge their similarities and their common grounds. Each is based from the “good old” that once was lost and now re-found, and I respect each of these medical organizations in their own ways to help bring out more practitioners in their own field, whether general medicine or specialty medicine, to encourage our patients and motivate them to pursue a health-promoting lifestyle that oftentimes prevent all of these so-call “chronic diseases” and even potentially reverse many medical conditions. I am honored to walk this path with my fellow PAs as well as all the practitioners of functional medicine and lifestyle medicine. We are all planted here to change healthcare for the better, one encounter at a time. Thank you for your interest in reading about my journey! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!