In nursing, it is crucial to know the leadership style required in each situation to act as a leader. The clinical nurse must have an effective leadership style that suits the situations presented during the performance of their functions, in order to achieve the objectives in the care of the patient and family.To describe the situational leadership styles present in nurses in hospital departments, including intensive care, according to the theory of Hersey and Blanchard and to determine the relationship between leadership styles and occupational variables.A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on a sample population of 107nurses working in clinical areas of hospital and intensive care in two health institutions. The Dr. Herman Bachenheimer situational leadership tool was applied to nursing staff.The nurses at the hospital area (61) and intensive care (46) have mainly a guide-leadership style (35.4%), followed by a participative style (33.9%) and manager-style (27.9%). Delegation leadership style (2.8%) was not present in clinical nurses. There is no significant relationship between leadership styles and the time working in the institution. A statistically significant relationship was found between leadership styles and length of management experience in the clinical area (P=.011).The predominant leadership style of hospital nurses is to guide, and for intensive care nurses it is participatory.