When Survivor viewers tune in each week, they're getting to know Sharonda Cox, M.D., as one of the castaways navigating alliances, competition and uncertainty on a remote island. But her colleagues at the University of Kentucky know her a little differently.
Cox is a fourth-year resident in the College of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She spends her days delivering babies, caring for patients and supporting women through some of life's most important and vulnerable moments.
When she left Lexington last spring to film the current season of Survivor, only her immediate family knew where she was going. Her fellow residents just knew she would be away and needed privacy, with many reaching out so show support.
"When they finally found out why I was gone, they were going insane," Cox said. "Everybody was shocked, but very supportive."
She can't reveal much about what happened on the island yet, but Cox said her experience as a physician may have played a role in earning a spot on the show.
"My audition tape definitely highlighted the fact that I'm a resident physician," she said. “My ethos was, ‘I'm in residency; I can survive anything.’”
Taking residency skills to the island
Cox joked that some of the toughest parts of Survivor felt familiar as a healthcare worker.
"We work 24-hour shifts and 80-hour weeks sometimes," she said. "Going on the show, I wasn't worried about whether or not I was going to be able to sleep on bamboo."
Before medical school, Cox worked as a mental health therapist before moving to Haiti, where she started a medical clinic. There, she cared for women and girls facing difficult pregnancies and limited access to healthcare. Her decision to pursue OB-GYN was also shaped by growing up with three sisters and a single mother, as well as a desire to help address health disparities affecting Black women.
“When I delivered my first baby in medical school, I went home and said, 'This is what I'm going to do,'" Cox shared. "It was my last rotation of third year, and I wanted that feeling all the time. To this day, I still have that feeling."
In the clinic, Cox helps patients navigate joyful deliveries, medical emergencies and difficult diagnoses. She shared the greatest overlap she noticed between her work and the competition wasn't endurance. It was listening and being present.
"Sometimes you need to listen to truly understand rather than listen to respond," Cox said. "I feel like I've gotten really good at that with time, figuring out what my patients need from me, how I can make them feel supported and listening to what they want."
She discovered the same principle applied to life on the island. "If you have an alliance, sometimes you have to listen," she said. "You can't be the leader all the time, and I think that's very big in the game of Survivor."
Returning with a new perspective
While residency helped prepare Cox for Survivor, she said the experience also influenced how she approaches medicine after coming back. Away from the constant demands of daily life during filming, she found herself slowing down, watching the stars and becoming more present in the moment.
"Now, instead of complaining, 'I'm tired, I'm this, I'm that,' I try to be in the moment," Cox said. "I think ‘I get to help this beautiful woman through an amazing delivery,' or 'I get to support her during a very hard time.'"
Cox wraps up her residency training next summer, but plans to remain at UK for three additional years of maternal-fetal medicine fellowship training, focusing on high-risk obstetrics.
"I've got the Kentucky bug," she joked. "For now, three more years here at least."
Cox has called Kentucky home for much of her adult life and takes pride in representing the Commonwealth on a global stage.
She also hopes that audiences take away a broader understanding of physicians and the lives they lead beyond the clinic.
"Sometimes when you think about being a physician, there's this prototype of what that person should be like," Cox said. "I don't think it should be that way. We're all human, and we all have different aspects to our lives."
That perspective, she said, ultimately makes her a better physician and helps build stronger relationships with patients.
"I want patients to feel like they can say, 'This is what I feel. This is what I want,' and know I'm not going to judge them," she said. "We'll work together, as long as it's safe for them and for baby."
