2 yr acute care RN what next?

I have currently been an RN for 2 yrs now working on a medical-telemetry floor. I went through an excellent residency but now I feel like I am stuck in just med-surg. I would ultimately like to be in PACU/short stay or even OR. unfortunately HR won't give me chance and deny my resume's off the bat because I do not have any critcal care experience. I do not want to go through another residency and be contracted to a floor for another year when that is not really what I want to do. Any suggestions? Also, I have my BSN and am wondering if I should go back to school and if so for what? Now with the new law rolling out, in order to get your NP you have to get a phD and I am not so down with that much school. I am just trying to find the next step in my career as I am young and don't feel that I should stop now. Any advice?
I think you may have an inaccurate impression of the role of HR. The people who actually determine who gets hired are the 'hiring managers' for each nursing area... these are most likely to be managers and supervisors. HR's role is just to manage the process; make sure that all the rules are followed and the paperwork is done. Have you tried talking to anyone in the ICU? If you can't get an appointment with the manager, try the ICU educator. He/she can provide you with information about making a switch to that specialty area. It takes formal training to become competent for specialty care areas... some of the work can be done ahead of time such as taking classes on EKG & hemodynamics ... but it also requires working with a preceptor to develop the hands-on skills and learn to manage patient care in that environment. Most larger facilities have periodic training programs to prepare new staff for ICU - if that is the case with yours, talk to the people that run these courses & see if you can get accepted. FYI, I try to make sure that all of our hospitals have 'open admissions' for our residencies - accepting internal candidates as well as new grads and we have had wonderful success with our 'transferring' nurses. Our data show that the internal candidates are much more successful; becoming productive in much less time and staying with the organization rather than leaving shortly after the training is completed as many new grads do.So - my advice is prepare your case & go 'sell yourself' to the ICU hiring manager and educator. Let them see how motivated and serious you are.
DNP, not PhD will be required for NP. Thank God! PhD is lots of writing.