A gear pump includes a drive gear mounted to a first gear shaft, a driven gear meshable with the drive gear, a plurality of journal bearings, and a first porting path. The first porting path is adapted to provide high pressure fluid communication from a discharge of the gear pump to a first hybrid pad location for a first journal bearing selected from the plurality of journal bearings, the first hybrid pad location circumferentially adjacent to a first fluid film location. Each location is disposed annularly between an inner surface of the first journal bearing, and an outer surface of the first gear shaft or second gear shaft corresponding to the first journal bearing.