NURSES past and present celebrated International Nurses Day at Monto Hospital with a high tea on May 12.

The enjoyable day allowed former nurses to reminisce and share advice with current staff.

Donna Dingle from Mollycoddle Beauty gave a guest speech about the importance of taking care of yourself, and managing stress.

"The first thing we talked about was ways to relax and one of the first ways we went through was how to make your own facial scrub at home,” Ms Dingle said.

"We did a little demo to show people how to do that themselves, then we shared some herbal tea, which is another great way to relax and take five minutes to breathe.”

Many of the activities were things that could be done at home, where nurses who spend most of their time caring for others could unwind and devote some private time to themselves.

Ms Dingle, along with Ainslee Marbach, provided herbal tea, meditation lessons, head and neck massage and mini pedicures for nurses.

"A few things I wanted them to take away was how easy it is to do at home,” she said.

"They chose one of the things that related to them, and I gave them the information they required.”

Queensland Nurses Union provided a cake for the function.