Penlight has become a vital tool for healthcare providers. Which is a good thing. So what we are looking at in this article is the best nursing penlight or the best medical penlight. That’s been said, let’s dive in.
What Is A Penlight?
You may be wondering what penlights are unless you are familiar with them. Penlights are basically small forms of flashlight that are pen-like in structure. They contain LED light bulbs; they are very portable and can easily be carried around in your pocket. Penlights are preferred to the outmoded flashlights and lambs used by medical staffs. Unlike normal flashlights, which are large in size and made to light up a large area, penlights are made to focus light on a small specific area.
To help you make the right choice, we are going to discuss everything you need to know about best nursing penlight: the types, the materials they are made of, their features, their uses, and the top 7 best penlight recommendations for you including their pros and cons.
Best Penlights 2020
- Risemart Medical Penlight
- Weltool M6-Dr Diagnostic Medical Penlight
- Everbrite 4-pack LED Penlight
- The Healifty Penlight
- Dixie Ems Coloured Disposable Penlight
- GearLight LED Pocket Penlight
- ASATechmed LED Medical Penlight
The Types And Features Of Penlight
Penlights come in different types and with different features. The knowledge of these will help you make the right choice should you need one.
1. Plastic and metallic penlights
Generally, all penlights available on the market today for nurses, doctors and other health professionals are made of either plastic materials or metallic materials. In most cases, those that are made of plastic materials are very light and are usually disposable. This means that once they are used they are discarded.
On the other hand, those that are made of lightweight metals, usually aluminium alloy and stainless steel, are less weighty and are considered the reusable ones.
2. Penlights with halogen or led bulbs
Penlights are either made of halogen bulbs or LED bulbs. Unlike halogen penlights which produce less bright white light with a bit of heat, LED penlights produce cooler, brighter and whiter light.
Clear visibility is of immense importance to nurses and doctors or any other medical personnel in patient assessment and diagnosis. If the penlight does not create a clear, bright and white color on the tissue under investigation, this may increase the risk of wrong diagnosis.
3. Disposable and reusable penlights
Here is additional information to what is already stated in point 1 above. Because of the high quality materials used in manufacturing reusable penlights, they are more expensive compared to the disposable ones. They also last longer than the disposable ones.
The reusable penlights must always be sanitized after use to prevent the spread of infections.
4. Nurse’s penlight with pupil gauge
Pupil gauges are numbers of circles printed on the sides of nurse’s or medical penlights, specifically those that are designed for examination of the pupil of the eye. The pupil gauge helps the nurse or doctor to compare the size of the pupils of the patient to a quantitated size of a circle on the penlight.
What Is Penlight Use For?
The little and easy-to-carry penlights are mostly used by health professionals such as nurses, doctors and many other medical practitioners. Policemen and women as well as mechanics also use them in their daily activities.
What really do professional nurses and doctors use penlight for?
Patient assessment
One of the main tools nurses and doctors use in assessing their patients are penlights, especially in the assessment of the pupil of the eye, the throat, the ear, and the nose. Penlights help nurses or doctors or eye specialist to determine the velocity at which the pupils constrict when exposed to bright light.
Wound examination
In every treatment room there is a strong bright overhead light to provide full visibility of any type of wound or injury for medical examination. But when it comes to wounds in the throat and many other interior parts of the body, overhead lights are limited in providing adequate illumination for full examination. This is the time the nurse or doctor employs the service of penlights to get the examination well done.
Gentle lighting of photophobic patient’s room
Photophobic patients are patients who are light sensitive; they are intolerance of light. Fluorescent light and sunlight, especially, cause headache and discomfort to such patients. Turning on the ceiling light in such patients’ room when attending to them whether in the day or at night may not be the wise thing to do. So most nurses and healthcare providers attending to such patients prefer using dim penlight in their room.
Helps in finding vein during phlebotomy
Many nurses including me find penlights helpful in finding veins during phlebotomy. This is especially at night when the veins are difficult to find and when there also are no vein finders available. Penlights easily provide the needed illumination to make securing a vein very easy.
Other uses
Personally, I find penlights helpful when removing stitches from sutured wounds. Some stitches used in suturing facial wounds are so small such that, when it is time to remove them for your patient, you may find it very difficult doing even with the overhead light on top of you in the treatment room. Thanks to Risemart Medical penlights and M6-Dr Diagnostic Medical Penlight. They always make my stitches removal very easy by making the stitches more visible. I also sometimes use penlight when checking for the presence of blood in the urine bag of my patients who are on catheter.
Best Nursing Penlight : Our Top 7 Recommendations
Now that you know what penlight is, the materials penlights are made of, their features and their uses, you may want to get one for yourself. If so, we have lifted the burden off you by going further to provide you with a list of 7 best penlights for nurses and other healthcare professionals.
Our recommendations are simple and smart looking, unlike the huge lamp and the bulky flashlights on the market. So take your time and go through and pick the one that suits your needs.
1. Risemart Medical Penlight
The number one on our list is Risemart Medical Penlight for nurses, doctors and ophthalmologists. This penlight made its way to the number one position on our list because it has an important feature: pupil gauge. The eye is an integral part of the body and any medical tool that helps in the diagnosis and treatment of its diseases should be treated as a first thing. RISEMART MEDICAL PENLIGHT is one of such tools with other different features.
Product description
It is a professional LED penlight, made of aluminium alloy, designed with Pupil Gauge Measurements, 2 Pieces of Reusable LED Penlights with 4 AAA Batteries.
Product features
- Made of Aluminium alloy and LED bulbs
- Pupil Gauge for pupils assessment
- Black and white in colour
- Smart-looking clip
- Metal clip to fasten firmly to the pocket
Product package
- Two pieces of Penlights (White light)
- Two LED light bulbs; white and yellow
- Four AAA Batteries
- Reusable
- Easy to carry around
- Long lasting battery
- Cheap penlight
- Yellow light to attention to light sensitive patients
- May be too bright to use in a photophobic patient’s room
We recommend this penlight because of it durability, two separate bulbs for different purposes and the many other unique properties that it offers and it real good value for money.
2. Weltool M6-Dr Diagnostic Medical Penlight
The M6-Dr Diagnostic Medical Penlight is well designed purposely for medical professionals.
Product description
It is made with a warm white LED light and has a nice colour temperature with colour rendering index of 85%. The LED bulbs produce a clear circle of distributed uniform light with no dark spot lighting anywhere. These extraordinary colour rendering property and the clear circle of distributed uniform light of the M6-Dr Diagnostic Medical Penlight help nurses and doctors in proper assessment and diagnosis of patients as it provides clear illumination for detailed viewing of the site under examination.
This properties of the M6-Dr Diagnostic Medical Penlight put it ahead of all other penlights on the market. Nurses, Optometrist and ophthalmologist love it. It would be our number one if it were to come with battery and at a lesser price.
Product features
- Made of aluminium alloy
- About 133 mm long
- Attractive metal clip
- White LED bulbs light
- Optical glass lens
- Very durable and of high quality
- The soft light will not disturb the doctor or patient’s vision
- A little bit expensive
- Doesn’t come with battery so you need 2 AAA batteries to start using it
If you are looking for quality, go for M6-Dr Diagnostic Medical Penlight.
3. Everbrite 4-pack LED Penlight
As the name implies, EverBrite 4-pack LED Penlight is made of a pack of 4 penlights.
Products description
It is made of aluminium material and comes in different colours; one Red, one Silvery, one Teal, and one Blue. It has a high intensity LED solid state bulb that never needs to be replaced. It is perfect for nurses and other healthcare professionals including medical and nursing students.
Not only that, the EverBrite comes with 8 strong carbon batteries: something that is not common on the market.
Product features
- 8 strong AAA carbon batteries
- Super bright LED bulb
- 4 EverBrite flashlights
- Metal clip.
- Supper bright LED light for perfect medical examination
- The 8 strong AAA carbon batteries is a plus
- Cheap penlight but of quality
- Too bright hence not good for photophobic patients
We recommend this penlight because it is our top best value for money penlight. It is of high quality but is a cheap penlight.
4. The Healifty Penlight
Product description
The Healifty penlight is a premium Medical EMT Emergency Surgical LED Penlight with pupil gauge. It has a very low power consumption rate, hence can be used for long hours. It’s also good for student nurses.
Products features
- Product color is gold
- Yellow clear dim color light
- Metallic materials
- Clip to hold it on your uniform
- Push-button on/off switch
- Pupil gauge
- Very affordable
- The yellow light makes it fit for nurses taking care of photophobic patients
- The light of this penlight is bright
Are you looking for a penlight with pupil gauge and with the added advantage of not running down quickly? Then look nowhere else. Grab the Healifty penlight now.
5. Dixie Ems Coloured Disposable Penlight
Dixie Ems Disposable Penlight is our number one disposable penlight for nurses and doctors.
Product description
This penlight comes in a pack containing 6 penlights with different colours and designs with pupil gauge. It is very good to get the work done. It’s about 5 mm long and 1/2 mm in diameter. It has extra bright pre-focused beam.
Product features
- Pocket clip activated
- Imprinted pupil gauge
- Comes in 6 different Colours
- Cheap penlight; very affordable
- Not reusable
If you are looking for a cheap but quality and handy penlight to get the job done, then Dixie Ems Coloured Disposable Penlight will be the best for you.
6. GearLight LED Pocket Penlight
Product Description
GearLight LED Pocket Penlight is all-black Aluminium penlight that is designed purposely general uses. It can be use at home and at the hospital by healthcare Providers. Package includes 2 nice-looking Penlight with Clip.
Product features
- Black in colour
- Ultra-Bright LED
- On/Off Tail Switch
- Portable and Lightweight
- All-aluminium Construction
- Removable metal Clip
- A pack of 2 penlight
- High Grade Aluminium
- Can be use both indoor and outdoor
- Doesn’t come with battery
We love this product because of its waterproof nature. Want a penlight that is waterproof and can be use both outdoor and indoor, go for this brand.
7. ASATechmed LED Medical Penlight
Product description
ASATechmed is the last but not the worst on our list. This penlight is among the best reusable penlight: that’s why it made its way on our list. It comes with 6 reusable LED Medical Penlight with Pupil Gauge. As if that is not enough, the package also comes with Nursing Scissors making it a complete working tool for nurses and other medical practitioners.
Products features
- Pupil gauge
- Metal clip
- Sealed concentric beam
- 6 pieces of reusable penlights
- 16 pieces “AAA” Batteries
- Very affordable
- Reusable
- The extra penlights and scissors is a plus
- The scissors are not strong enough
We recommend ASATechmed LED Medical Penlight to those who are looking forward to stocking up quality medical equipment while saving money and those who want to have a first aid box at home. It’s a perfect choice.
Selecting The Best Nursing Penlight. Buying Tips
There are a lot of penlights on the market today. Selecting those that have a good lighting and long lasting battery life should be considered if you desire to have one. Also its always good to buy a penlight that comes with extra batteries. I don’t recommend buying penlights that comes with chargeable batteries because the strength of the battery turns to weaken with time.
You should also consider buying penlight with pupil gauge as it may be very beneficial to you as a health professional.
As a nurse or a health professional, bear in mind that when it come to lighting, most of the white lights can be too strong for your patients eye especially those with eye conditions that are intolerant to light. So selecting a warm light penlight will be the right thing to do.
You don’t want to buy a penlight that is very bulky and very heavy, right? The truth is some of the penlight you see on market place are very bulky and heavy, yet may look small in the photos displayed for marketing.
Always check the weight and size of any penlight you want to buy in the product description page before purchasing to avoid purchasing something that you may not be happy with. It may be appropriate to go for those that are made of Aluminium alloy because they are usually attractive and comes in with a very moderate weight.
Final Thought
As a nurse or a health professional, it’s important you have your own penlight because you will definitely need it unless you are not a healthcare provider. It’s a very vital tool that when in your pocket you feel complete and ready for nose, throat, ear and eye examination without any limitation.
I have personally tried all that I’ve list above and I can tell you from experience that Risemart and Weltool are the best options to go for. So if you have need of a penlight as a healthcare provider, make no mistake. Just pick any of the two.
I hope you find this article helpful. Kindly share with friends and family.
It’s now time to hear from you. Are you planning to start using penlight? Leave a comment below and let’s begin a chat.
If you have used any of the above penlights before, let me know your experience in the comment box below.
