“Whenever possible, we will develop innovative, low-cost, and small-footprint approaches to achieve our security objectives.” 1
Team member and participant observations can deliver valuable insight into the effectiveness of an activity or project. Certainly, documentation of such qualitative assessment through survey questions or narratives can reveal important information for future action. This qualitative aspect was a significant consideration in the formation of an embedded health engagement team (EHET) intended to improve foreign assistance and health outcomes for global humanitarian and security cooperation activities.
Since health activities are centered on human interaction and relationships, some observation or qualitative assessment must be included to truly determine short-term local buy-in and long-term outcomes. The following observations include the direct narrative perspectives of team members from a multidisciplinary primary care EHET that add experiential depth to prior assessment of the pilot test of such teams during Continuing Promise 2011, a 9-country series of health engagement activities employed from the USNS Comfort.2 The embedded team consisted of US Air Force (USAF), US Navy (USN), and nongovernmental organization (NGO) personnel working directly in a primary care clinic of the Costa Rican public health system.
