Congratulations on your daughter getting into Medical School! Major Kudos!
That penlight is probably good enough! Whatever she uses has a high probability of being lost and of course being exposed to all kinds of nasty things. It will be exposed to cleaning wipes non-stop too. If she loses it, there's always flashlights all over the place in the hospital and she can buy a cheap replacement penlight in the bookstore as needed. You can buy her a pack of them at any ems/nursing website...that would actually be a cheap purchase. Your energies are better spent on selecting a small EDC light for walking around school and nighttime walks to and from the library, classes, clinicals, etc. And of course for natural disasters and miscellaneous power outages, of course we need lights!
I've seen opthamology and some surgical folks have headlamps or "a good light" in their bag for examinations or doing work at the bedside. The "good lights" I've seen are an LED of some kind, lol. I saw a coast adjustable beam flashlight once that a resident left behind...he came back for it. I'll stick to my own lights thank you! Most of the headlamps i've seen are REI stuff.
So yeah, maybe a good EDC light is better at this time...let the discussions begin. I'm thinking cheap, easy to use for a non light person, simple battery choice, and a low, low mode to look at pupils when needed. This light has to live in a lab coat pocket and/or backpack/messenger bag.
Side note: I've been carry my HDS rotary more and more for work in the ICU. Its so glorious! I can click on/off as needed and rotate to select intensity for all the different tasks...and good for walk to car/EDC duties after/before work. My only regret is it is clunky to have in my scrubs pant or shirt pocket. If HDS made a cheap AAA or AA rotary, I would buy a bunch and call it a day.
My initial thought is an S1 Baton would check off an awful lot of boxes (except battery type...but she could "survive" on a box of primaries you send her).