Career Prospects for OR nurses?

A friend of mine is telling me to apply for one of the open OR positions at the hospitals he works at, apparently they are very desperate for RN's to fill in some slots. OR was one of the things I wanted to do while I was in school but with the economy being in the toilet I ended up just being where I am now.

Currently I'm in a LTC/SNF so it'll be a completely different animal. If I went into Grad School would the experience I have count as "acute care" or do I still have to eventually work on the floors to get a NP?