Are you lacking motivation and confidence at work? Do you feel anxious about the security of your job? As employment statistics continue to deteriorate, we could put these feelings down to the saddening status of the economy, but is that really a good enough excuse to work in a job you don’t enjoy?

Don’t get me wrong, we should always feel grateful for our job, especially in the current climate. But our jobs are what make us get up in the mornings. So, shouldn’t we make the most of our 40+ hours a week?

In any case, if you’re feeling down in the dumps at the moment and have realised that it’s not the economy, but actually, you’re not enjoying your job, it could be time for a change of scene.

Ask yourself these questions:

• How long have you be in your current job?
• Has your salary increased since your last job?
• Are your responsibilities at work increasing or decreasing?
• Are you involved in important decision making at work?
• Do you feel challenged by your role?
• Are you just hopping from one employer to the next staying in the same position?
• Have people hired after you been promoted faster?
• Do your colleagues seek out work advice from you?
• Do you dread going to work?

It’s pretty obviously which of these answers are good and which are bad signs of what you should do next.

It may be a case of considering other roles, as it’s true what they say: It’s much easier to find a job if you have a job. In which case, give an honest analysis of your career as it stands and assess your long-term objectives. Are you doing what you always wanted to? Is your current job a step in the right direction?

If not, or you can think of something better and more relevant to your personal career goals, no time like the present to sort yourself out. It’s only too easy to become too comfortable with your job and falling into a career slump.

But, it could also mean that you should think about discussing your feelings with your boss. Ask how you can contribute more to the company, and use your initiative to put forward some ideas to keep things fresh and involving. You’re more likely to enjoy your work if you’re doing different things and being recognised for your efforts.

A career rut is never easy and new opportunities can often feel out of sight. But if you’re feeling unmotivated and lacking stimulation in your job, it’s worth having a serious think about what you should really do.

Visit PharmaJobs for the latest vacancies in pharmaceutical sales.

A monitoring technology used in hospitals has helped the GB Rowing Team to train for the current World Championships in Bled, Slovenia.

As the team’s High Performance Partner, Siemens Healthcare has provided them with a RAPIDPoint 350 Blood Gas analyser (pictured), which helps to monitor the athletes’ adaption to intense training.

By monitoring their blood gases, the team can identify any imbalance that might lead to loss of breath or development of a stitch.

The RAPIDPoint analyser is small, lightweight (less than 8kg) and easy to use in a wide range of environments. It delivers results in just 2 minutes.

David Tanner CBE, the GB Rowing Team’s International Manager, commented: “The use of the Siemens RAPIDPoint 350 is a very good example of the partnership between Siemens and the GB Rowing Team. There is no question that this has helped the GB Rowing Team to improve performance on the water.”

According to Chief Coach Paul Thompson, “Using this analyser allows coaches and support staff better to monitor, direct and individualise the rowers’ programme to maximise the training effect and their race readiness.”

Helen Glover, World Cup winner 2011, offered a user’s view: “The testing involved with the RAPIDPoint 350 is painless and non-invasive. The results have been very helpful to me in understanding how my body reacts to intense periods of training.”

“Our RAPIDLab300 is a small, low-maintenance and easy-to-use system, making it ideal for hospital critical care environment and a huge range of other testing environments, including sport,” said Afia Boamah, Blood Gas and Stratus CS Product Manager at Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics.

Genetic analysis technology has shown promise in monitoring target genes found in amniotic fluid during the early stages of foetal development.

The Standardised NanoArray PCR (SNAP) enables clinicians to determine the health of foetal organ development very early in pregnancy.

Dr Lauren Massingham, Division of Genetics, Department of Paediatrics at the Floating Hospital for Children, Boston, Massachusetts, said that the “foetal gene expression panels could prove useful in prenatal care to evaluate function in cases of at-risk pregnancies and foetal pathologies”.

Using a previously developed SNAP gene panel, investigators from the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, determined that seven of the 21 genes tested were expressed differently depending on foetal sex or age.

Results were obtained from amniotic fluid samples from foetuses between 15 to 20 weeks, when standard amniotic fluid testing is performed.

“This technique could be optimised to examine specific genes instrumental in foetal organ system function, which could be a useful addition to prenatal care,” commented Dr Massingham.

According to the investigators, further studies using the gene panel could simplify the complex immune pathways involved in the maternal-foetal relationship.

SNAP technology allows for the simultaneous quantitative assessment of tens to hundreds of genes, overcoming the quality concerns of processing primary human samples.

Clearbridge BioLoc has unveiled a prototype of its new blood testing equipment, AssayQuest.

The product is a fully-automated, portable analysis platform that performs complex and cost effective point-of-care testing from a finger-prick blood sample.

Its aim is to enable healthcare professionals to conduct laboratory-quality tests and receive results within minutes.

Dr Lee Smith, CEO of Clearbridge BioLoc, said that AssayQuest will provide healthcare professionals with “fast and affordable results at the point of care”.

The system consists of a disposable Test-card and Reader. The Test-card contains blisters filled with customisable reagents connected by a microfluidic matrix. The Reader’s roller pump mechanism processes the Test-card by rupturing the blisters in an automated sequence.

AssayQuest will connect to smartphone devices through the use of the AQroid mobile application. The smartphone will control the system, capture the result and analyse it. The application enables transmission and sharing of test data over 3G cellular networks as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS location tagging.