New nurses burnout and workplace wellbeing: The influence of authentic leadership and psychological capital

• Both organizational and intrapersonal resources appear to play a protective role against early career burnout development over time.
• Authentic leadership and psychological capital appear to protect new nurses from negative early career work experiences.
• Burnout was significantly related to poor mental health and job dissatisfaction.
• The results strengthen previous findings in cross-sectional studies.
• Efforts to develop authentic leadership skills and build psychological capital to prevent early career burnout seem warranted.

The detrimental effects of burnout on nurses’ health and wellbeing are well documented and positive leadership has been shown to be an important organizational resource for discouraging the development of burnout. Intrapersonal resources also play a protective role against workplace stressors. This study investigated the influence of authentic leadership, an organizational resource, and psychological capital, an intrapersonal resource, on new graduate burnout, occupational satisfaction, and workplace mental health over the first year of employment (n = 205). Results supported the protective role of organizational and intrapersonal resources against burnout, job dissatisfaction, and mental health.