If you're part of an accredited US PT program, you shouldn't have a choice of whether or not you want to do an acute rotation. I believe it is required of everyone. That being said, acute care experiences really vary by facility. I never saw myself doing acute care PT, and here I am excited to begin my first job in this setting.
While these are somewhat generalizations, I have found that smaller community based hospitals and places that perform a lot of elective total joint procedures tend to be more monotonous from a PT perspective and don't require as much critical thinking. Larger medical centers and rotations that afford the opportunity for ICU and/or trauma exposure tend to be a little more interesting and variable from day to day. Inpatient PT is not for everyone, but I think a lot of students tend to knock it before they really go on their experience. In hospitals where PT's are seen as more collaborative members of the team (vs subordinates to the physician staff), I think that there are a lot of opportunities to implement our PT evaluation and treatment skills with a variety of patients.
As far as the role of PT's in acute care...we are used to evaluate patient mobility and assess safety. MD's and SW tend to look to PT's for discharge recommendations. The primary interventions are generally transfer and gait training. We also play a big role in teaching post-operative and trauma patients how to follow their restrictions/precautions, and instruct appropriate movement strategies to cope with pain, etc.
