This article reviews the literature focusing on the identification of effective teaching behaviors for clinical nursing instructors. A variety of behaviors that should result in effective clinical instruction have been identified. Some of the authors developed major categories of behaviors and others developed a list of specific behaviors for evaluating the clinical instructor. When comparing all of the authors, it appeared that there was an element of consensual validation by the authors, and Jacobson's behavioral categories were broad enough to include most of the behaviors (specific and categorical) developed by others. Therefore, it would seem appropriate to develop a tool for students' evaluation of clinical instructors by using Jacobson's categories as a categorical framework and listing specific behaviors within each of the major categories.