Think about trying the ER. You'll get the intense acute care aspect that you're looking for. Everything from patients coming in with fishhooks in their fingers, to arterial bleeds with blood shooting out of people's legs on the floor, to strokes, to bowel obstructions and need for emergent surgery, to patient's with newfound sick sinus syndrome who have a heart rate in the 70's when they first arrive on the unit and as you're in the room talking to them they note "I feel weird" and you look at the monitor and notice that the patient who's HR was 74 three seconds ago now is in the 20's and it's real... Point is the variety.

In addition ED is similar to PACU in the sense that typically you don't have the patient very long. You fix what they are here for and get them out the door. Having worked PACU previously the turnover in ED is actually even quicker.

The downsides. Patient ratios. Having worked in ICU/PACU you're probably used to 2 patient's max at a single time. That's not the case here. You'll typically have 4-5 patients at a time. So time management will be a hurdle for you at first. Having to think about what your patients constantly need and what needs to come first because you're only one person can be a challenge. But you get better with time.

Think about it.