See the hottest books publishing this Summer

Book Club Discussion Questions and Guide for The Nurse's Secret by Amanda Skenandore

The Nurse's Secret by Amanda Skenandore

The Nurse's Secret

A Thrilling Historical Novel of the Dark Side of Gilded Age New York City

by Amanda Skenandore

  • Readers' Rating (2):
  • Published:
  • Jun 2022, 368 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Club Discussion Questions

Print PDF

Want to participate in our book club? Join BookBrowse and get free books to discuss!

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

  1. The Nurse's Secret offers a glimpse of what life was like for America's very first professional nurses. What were some of the most significant differences you noticed between early nursing as it's represented in the novel and your understanding of the profession today?
  2. While reading this novel, in what ways did you notice the nursing profession has remained the same today as it was 150 years ago? Were you surprised by any of these uniformities? Did any scenes or details from the story resonate with your own experiences with modern-day nurses?
  3. To survive in the slums of Gilded Age New York, Una is a liar, a thief, and a con artist with little compassion for the suffering of others. Do you think this makes her immoral? Did you find her to be a likable character?
  4. Did any of the qualifications required to apply to the Bellevue Nurse Training School surprise you?
  5. Great wealth and extreme poverty existed side by side in Gilded Age New York with almost no middle class in between. The rich lived in European-inspired mansions along Millionaires Row while the poor crowded into tenements—sometimes living a dozen people to a room. How was this reflected in the novel? Does the same degree of class stratification exist today?
  6. How do you think the death of Una's mother shaped her outlook?
  7. Una has a list of rules to survive life on the streets. How did those rules help her? How did they hurt her? Do you think any of the rules are worth carrying over into her new life?
  8. Do you think Edwin and Una are a good fit for each other? Do you think their relationship will endure? Why or why not?
  9. When Edwin tells Una he doesn't care who knows about their romance, she replies, "Easy for you to say. You don't have anything to lose" What gender dynamics are at play in the novel? Do those same dynamics exist today?
  10. Dr. Joseph Lister came to America in 1876 to share his ideas about germ theory and asepsis, but it was several years before the medical community fully embraced his ideas. Why do you think there was such reluctance? Aside from germ theory, what medical advances in the past 150 years do you think have had the biggest impact?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Kensington Publishing. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

More Recommendations

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Ghostwriter
    by Julie Clark
    From the instant New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell comes a dazzling new thriller.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Erased
    by Anna Malaika Tubbs

    In Erased, Anna Malaika Tubbs recovers all that American patriarchy has tried to destroy.

  • Book Jacket

    Songs of Summer
    by Jane L. Rosen

    A young woman crashes a Fire Island wedding to find her birth mother—and gets more than she bargained for.

Who Said...

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

B a L

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.