Older age is one of the greatest risk factors of dementia, and the rural demographic is ageing in Canada. Compared with their urban counterparts, rural older adults often face unique challenges in accessing cognitive healthcare, which is exacerbated by a shortage of healthcare specialists, public transportation, finances, education, services and dispersed geography. This scoping review protocol outlines the methodology that will be used to examine the literature about the care priorities, service needs and lived experiences from the perspectives of rural older adults living with cognitive impairment and dementia in Canada.

Our scoping review protocol will follow the guidance of Arksey and O’Malley and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extensions for Scoping Reviews checklist. Our search strategy will identify relevant peer-reviewed literature in databases including Cumulated Index in Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), EMBASE, PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus. The database search dates for this scoping review will be from 1 January 2015 to 1 January 2025. The data will be charted by two reviewers using a standardised data extraction table. Inductive content analysis will be performed using a three-step process.

Given this scoping review will be an examination of the published literature, human subjects will not be included in this research. Therefore, ethics approval is not required. Knowledge mobilisation and dissemination strategies will include peer-reviewed journal articles, conference presentations, community workshops, newsletter articles and webinars. This study may provide valuable information for healthcare practitioners, community leaders and policymakers working to support people living with cognitive impairment and dementia in rural communities.