Introduction: Currently, the concept of leadership has come to be greatly appreciated in clinical education, due to its potency in predicting the efficacy of clinical programs. The present study was carried out to set forth the procedural guidelines of situational leadership style in clinical education for nursing students.

Methods: The present review study was conducted through searching databases, such as Proquest, PubMed, Elsevier, Wily, Magiran, and SID, for five keywords including leadership, situational leadership, clinical instructor, clinical education, and nursing student. Eventually, a total of 33 articles, found relevant to the study, were selected and reported.

Results: The results were presented under core concepts such as situational leadership model and procedural guidelines of situational leadership in clinical education. Based on situational leadership in clinical education, the levels of clinical educators’ supportive and directive leadership behaviors manifest four different styles, including telling, selling, participating, and delegating, which should be employed commensurate with the students’ readiness and, in case the students’ level of readiness in doing a particular activity changes, the leadership style should change accordingly.

Conclusions: The results of this study indicated that enhancing the nursing educators’ leadership skills is of utmost importance for achieving greater clinical efficacy; therefore, educators should apply situational leadership to clinical education.