Aaron Bradley, BSN, RN
We are delighted to be celebrating Aaron Bradley, BSN, RN, as our 2024 Nurse of the Year. Aaron was nominated by his peers for his exceptional nursing and leadership skills as well as his passionate dedication to supporting his fellow nurses
Aaron’s path to nursing began with a terrible loss. During freshman year of college, his best friend died following a nursing error. “It felt like my calling was to never allow that to happen to anyone else again.” While Aaron views the cause of his friend’s passing in a different light given what he knows now, this event started his path to nursing. Aaron completed the associates degree in criminal justice he’d begun but rather than pursue a career with the FBI, he eventually pivoted to nursing. In 2007, Aaron graduated from Pacific Lutheran University with his BSN.
Aaron learns best through hands-on practice. With an extreme learning disability, nursing school was not an easy journey. Thankfully, Aaron found faculty and mentors who provided support. One instructor suggested a position at Good Samaritan Hospital in a Med Surg unit filled with lots of experienced nurses. And so, Aaron started his nursing career there in 2007.
Aaron still works at Good Samaritan Hospital. Since 2015, he’s been on the Palliative Care floor where he enjoys caring for the patients and their families. “I love being a palliative care nurse and I love CMO patients.”
Between 2008-2019, Aaron also worked as a school nurse for Clover Park School District (CPSD). For a few years, he worked 16 hours a day (8 at the hospital and 8 at the school district). After transitioning to 12 hour shifts at Good Sam, he continued to work part time at CPSD as a substitute and helping with special projects.
Aaron’s advice for new nurses is to remember that you’re part of a team. “You work together to provide the best care.” Not surprisingly, Aaron precepts a lot of new nurses – helping them find their way like his mentors helped him.
Aaron is very involved with the Good Samaritan Local Unit – serving as the Treasurer for the last 14 years. He’s helped negotiate 6 contracts. “I know the contract like the back of my hand.” He’s been instrumental in engaging his fellow nurses and building a strong team. Sometimes known by fellow nurses as “Aaron from the Union”, he is passionate about making “the work environment better” for everyone.
With his wife, Kathryn, and three adopted children aged 14, 16 and 21, Aaron runs a blueberry farm with 600 blueberry bushes, an orchard with 38 fruit trees and a growing flower garden. Their farm keeps growing; the goal is 2,000 blueberry bushes. As if his nursing career, local unit leadership and farm were not enough to keep him busy, Aaron has a plethora of hobbies – hiking, camping, cliff/bridge jumping as well as working on professional firework shows. Aaron has been working with pyrotechnics since he was six years old and still works on large firework shows during the summer.